UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


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THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


J^onore  tie  Balzac 


PROVINCIAL   LIFE 

VOLUME  VI 


LIMITED    TO   ONE    THOUSAND    COMPLETE   COPIES 


™,  JA3 


IN  THE  RUE  D'ARTOIS 


"Then"  said  the  drummer,  looking  at  the  polished 
back  of  the  florist,  "I  become  a  shareholder  in  the 
journals,  like  Finot,  one  of  my  friends,  the  son  of  a 
hatter,  who  has  now  thirty  thousand  francs  income, 
and  who  is  going  to  be  made  peer  of  France  !  " 


THE    NOVELS 


OF 


HONORE  DE  BALZAC 


NOW    FOR   THE    FIRST   TIME 
COMPLETELY    TRANSLATED    INTO    ENGLISH 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS   GAUDISSART 
THE  MUSE   OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

BY  WILLIAM  WALTON 


WITH    FIVE    ETCHINGS    BY    EUGENE    DECISY   AND    CHARLES 

GIROUX,  AFTER  PAINTINGS  BY  DANIEL  HERNANDEZ 

AND    PIERRE   VIDAL 


IN  ONE  VOLUME 


PRINTED  ONLY  FOR  SUBSCRIBERS  BY 

GEORGE   BARRIE   &   SON,   PHILADELPHIA 


COPYRIGHTED,    1 898,  BY  G.   B.   &   SON 


■-••«••••..•*         '    -  » *  *  *    • 


TIE 


a 


o 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 


189953 


TO  MADAME  LA  DUCHESSE  DE  CASTRIES 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 


The  commercial  traveller,  a  personage  unknown 
to  antiquity,  is  he  not  one  of  the  most  curious  figures 
created  by  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  present 
epoch  ?  is  he  not  destined,  in  some  order  of  things, 
to  mark  the  great  transition  which,  in  the  eyes  of 
critical  observers,  welds  the  period  of  material  de- 
velopment and  improvement  to  that  of  intellectual 
development  and  improvement  ?  Our  century  will 
bind  together  the  reign  of  isolated  force,  abounding  in 
original  creations,  and  the  reign  of  force  uniform, 
but  levelling,  equalizing  all  productions,  throwing 
them  together  in  masses,  and  obeying  a  principle  of 
unity,  the  last  expression  of  societies.  After  the 
saturnalia  of  intelligence  generally  diffused,  after  the 
last  efforts  of  the  civilizations  which  accumulate  the 
treasures  of  the  earth  on  one  point,  does  not  the 
gloom  of  barbarism  always  arrive  ?  Is  not  the  com- 
mercial traveller  to  ideas  just  what  our  stage-coaches 
are  to  packages  and  men  ?  he  puts  them  in  a  vehicle, 
(5) 


6  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

sets  them  in  motion,  knocks  them  against  each 
other ;  he  gathers  up,  in  the  luminous  centre,  his 
due  freight  of  rays  and  scatters  them  through  the 
sleepy  outside  population.  This  human  pyrophorus 
is  an  ignorant  scientist,  a  juggler  hoaxed  by  himself, 
an  incredulous  priest  who,  nevertheless,  preaches  all 
the  better  his  mysteries  and  his  dogmas.  A  curious 
figure  !  this  man  has  seen  everything,  he  knows 
everything,  he  is  acquainted  with  all  the  world. 
Saturated  with  the  vices  of  Paris,  he  can  affect  the 
easy  credulity  of  the  province.  Is  he  not  the  link 
which  joins  the  village  to  the  capital,  although 
essentially  he  is  neither  Parisian  nor  provincial,  for 
he  is  a  traveller  ?  He  sees  to  the  bottom  of  nothing  ; 
of  men  and  localities,  he  learns  the  names  ;  of  things, 
he  appreciates  the  surfaces  ;  he  has  his  particular 
yardstick  for  each  special  piece  of  measuring ;  in 
short,  his  eye  glances  off  objects  and  does  not  pene- 
trate them.  He  interests  himself  in  everything,  and 
nothing  really  interests  him.  A  jester  and  a  boon 
companion,  apparently  interested  in  all  parties,  he 
is  usually  a  patriot  at  the  bottom  of  his  heart.  An 
excellent  mimic,  he  knows  how  to  assume  alternately 
the  smile  of  affection,  of  contentment,  of  good-nature, 
and  then  leaves  them  all  to  return  to  his  true  charac- 
ter, to  a  normal  condition  in  which  he  reposes.  He 
is  obliged  to  be  an  observer,  under  penalty  of  re- 
nouncing his  trade.  Is  he  not  continually  obliged  to 
sound  men  by  a  simple  look,  to  divine  their  actions, 
their  manners  and  customs,  their  solvency  above 
all ;  and — that  he  may  not  lose  his  time — to  decide 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  7 

suddenly  as  to  the  chances  of  success  ?  Thus  the 
habit  of  deciding  promptly  in  every  case,  makes  him 
essentially  a  judge  of  men  and  things  ;  he  assumes, 
he  discourses  like  an  expert  on  the  theatres  of  Paris, 
on  their  actors  and  on  those  of  the  provinces.  Then 
he  knows  all  the  good  and  all  the  evil  places  in 
France,  de  actu  et  visu.  He  will  pilot  you  at  need 
to  either  vice  or  to  virtue  with  the  same  easy 
assurance.  Endowed  with  the  eloquence  of  a  hot- 
water  spigot  which  can  be  turned  on  at  will,  is  he 
not  able  with  equal  ease  to  shut  off  and  to  turn  on 
his  collection  of  prepared  phrases  which  flow  with- 
out stop  and  produce  upon  the  victim  the  effect  of  a 
moral  douche?  A  sprightly  story-teller,  he  smokes, 
he  drinks  ;  he  wears  trinkets,  he  imposes  upon  the 
commonplace  people,  passes  for  a  lord  in  the  villages, 
never  allows  himself  to  be  made  tired, — a  slang 
of  his  own — and  knows  how  to  slap  his  pockets 
at  the  proper  moment  to  make  his  money  jingle,  so 
as  not  to  be  taken  for  a  thief  by  the  servants, 
eminently  suspicious  as  they  are  in  the  bourgeois 
households  into  which  he  penetrates.  As  to  his 
activity,  is  it  not  the  least  quality  of  this  human 
machine  ?  Neither  the  kite  swooping  upon  its  prey, 
nor  the  stag  doubling  to  escape  the  dogs  and  throw 
the  hunters  off  the  track,  nor  the  hounds  scenting 
the  game  at  a  distance,  can  be  compared  to  the 
rapidity  of  his  flight  when  he  scents  a  commission, 
to  the  neatness  with  which  he  trips  up  his  rival's 
heels  that  he  may  get  ahead  of  him,  to  the  art  with 
which  he  noses,  he  feels,  he  discovers  by  instinct  an 


8  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

opportunity  to  place  his  goods.  How  many  superior 
qualities  are  there  not  required  for  the  making  of 
such  a  man  !  Do  you  find,  in  any  country,  many 
of  these  diplomats  of  the  ground  floor,  of  these  con- 
summate negotiators  speaking  in  the  name  of 
calicoes,  of  jewelry,  of  the  cloth-trade,  of  wines,  and 
frequently  more  skilful  than  the  ambassadors,  who, 
for  the  most  part,  have  only  empty  forms  ?  No 
one,  in  France,  entertains  any  doubt  concerning  the 
incredible  ability  incessantly  displayed  by  the  travel- 
ling drummers,  these  intrepid  affronters  of  negations, 
who,  in  the  farthermost  borough,  represent  the  genius 
of  civilization  and  the  Parisian  inventions  grappling 
with  the  good  sense,  the  ignorance  or  the  routine  of 
the  provinces.  Can  we  ever  forget  here  those 
admirable  manoeuvres  which  knead  the  intelligence 
of  the  populations,  by  treating  by  word  of  mouth 
the  most  refractory  masses,  and  which  resemble 
those  indefatigable  polishers  whose  files  lick  into 
smoothness  the  hardest  porphyries  !  If  you  would 
wish  to  know  the  power  of  the  tongue  and  the  con- 
vincing pressure  brought  to  bear  by  phrases  upon 
the  most  rebellious  ecus,  those  of  the  small  landed 
proprietor  buried  in  his  country  mud,  listen  to  the 
discourse  of  one  of  these  grand  dignitaries  of  the 
Parisian  industry  for  the  profit  of  which  trot  about, 
strike  and  function  these  intelligent  pistons  of  the 
steam-engine  called  Speculation. 

"  Monsieur,"  said  to  a  learned  political  economist 
the  director-cashier-manager-general-secretary  and 
administrator   of  one  of  the  most  celebrated  com- 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  9 

panies  for  insurance  against  fire,  "  Monsieur,  in  the 
provinces,  of  five  hundred  thousand  francs'  worth 
of  policies  that  are  renewed,  not  more  than  fifty 
thousand  francs  are  paid  up  voluntarily ;  the  four 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  remaining  are 
brought  into  us  by  the  insistence  of  our  agents  who 
go  among  the  insured  who  are  in  arrears  and  worry 
them  until  they  have  signed  their  new  policies, 
frightening  them  and  beating  them  by  terrifying 
narrations  of  conflagrations,  etc.  Thus,  eloquence, 
the  labial  flux,  counts  for  nine-tenths  in  the  ways 
and  means  of  our  business." 

To  speak,  to  make  one's  self  listened  to,  is  not 
that  to  seduce  ?  A  nation  which  has  its  two  Cham- 
bers, a  woman  who  lends  her  two  ears,  are  equally 
undone.  Eve  and  her  serpent  represent  the  eternal 
myth  of  a  daily  fact  which  commenced  with  the 
world,  and  which  will  perhaps  finish  with  it. 

"  After  a  conversation  of  two  hours,  any  man 
should  be  yours,"  said  a  retired  attorney. 

Let  us  take  a  turn  around  this  commercial 
traveller !  Let  us  examine  this  figure !  Do  not 
forget  the  olive-colored  redingote,  nor  the  cloak,  nor 
the  stock  in  morocco  leather,  nor  the  pipe,  nor  the 
cotton  shirt  with  blue  stripes.  In  this  figure,  so 
original  that  it  resists  all  rubbing,  how  many  divers 
natures  will  you  not  discover  ?  Behold  !  what  an 
athlete,  what  an  arena,  what  arms, — himself,  the 
world  and  his  tongue  !  Intrepid  navigator,  he  em- 
barks, furnished  with  a  few  phrases,  to  go  and  fish 
for  five  or  six  thousand  francs  in  the  polar  seas,  in 


10  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

the  country  of  the  Iroquois,  in  France  !  Is  it  not  a 
question  of  extracting,  by  operations  purely  intel- 
lectual, the  gold  buried  in  the  hiding-places  in  the 
provinces,  to  extract  it  without  pain  !  The  fish  of 
the  rural  departments  will  not  rise  to  the  harpoon 
or  torches,  and  can  be  taken  only  by  the  seine,  the 
net,  the  most  gentle  of  traps.  Can  you  think  now 
without  shuddering,  of  the  deluge  of  phrases  which, 
at  the  break  of  day,  recommences  its  endless  cas- 
cades all  over  France  ?  Now  that  you  know  the 
species,  here  is  the  individual. 

There  exists  in  Paris  an  incomparable  drummer, 
the  paragon  of  his  kind,  a  man  who  possesses  in  the 
highest  degree  all  the  conditions  requisite  for  his 
success.  In  his  speech  there  are  to  be  found  at  the 
same  time  vitriol  and  bird-lime, — bird-lime  with 
which  to  catch  his  victim,  to  entangle  him  and  make 
him  sticky  ;  vitriol  with  which  to  dissolve  the  hardest 
calculations.  His  particular  line  was  hats  ;  but  his 
talent  and  the  art  with  which  he  was  able  to  capture 
customers  had  acquired  for  him  so  great  a  commercial 
celebrity  that  the  dealers  in  the  article  Paris  all  paid 
court  to  him  to  persuade  him  to  deign  to  take  charge 
of  their  commissions.  Thus,  when  on  his  return 
from  his  triumphal  marches  he  sojourned  in  Paris, 
he  was  constantly  invited  to  weddings  and  festivals  ; 
in  the  provinces,  the  correspondents  pampered  him  ; 
in  Paris,  the  great  houses  caressed  him.  Welcomed, 
feted,  nourished  everywhere ;  for  him,  to  breakfast 
or  to  dine  alone  came  to  be  a  debauch,  a  pleasure. 
He  led  the  life  of  a  sovereign,  or,  better,  that  of  a 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  II 

journalist.  But  was  he  not  indeed  the  living  feuilleton 
of  Parisian  commerce  ?  His  name  was  Gaudissart, 
and  his  fame,  his  credit,  the  eulogies  with  which  he 
was  overwhelmed,  had  procured  for  him  the  surname 
of  the  illustrious.  Wherever  this  fine  fellow  entered, 
whether  it  were  an  office  or  an  inn,  a  salon  or  a 
diligence,  a  garret  or  a  banker's  residence,  every- 
one exclaimed  on  seeing  him:  "Ah!  there  is  the 
illustrious  Gaudissart."  Never  was  there  a  name 
more  in  harmony  with  the  style,  the  manners,  the 
physiognomy,  the  voice,  the  language  of  any  man.* 
Everything  smiled  on  the  drummer,  and  the  drum- 
mer smiled  on  all.  Similia  similibus,  he  was  like 
homoeopathy.  Endless  puns,  a  big  laugh,  the  figure 
of  a  monk,  the  complexion  of  a  Cordelier,  a  general 
Rabelaisian  atmosphere  ;  garments,  body,  mind  and 
face  were  all  in  accord  to  proclaim  drollery,  broad 
jesting,  in  his  whole  person.  Frank  in  business 
affairs,  a  good  fellow,  a  story-teller,  you  will  have 
recognized  in  him  the  "obliging  gentleman"  of  the 
grisette,  who  climbs  elegantly  to  his  place  on  the 
imperial  of  the  diligence,  gives  his  hand  to  the  lady 
timid  over  her  descent  from  the  coupe,  makes  a  joke 
over  the  postilion's  great  handkerchief,  and  sells  him 
a  hat ;  smiles  at  the  maid,  catches  her  round  the 
waist  or  by  the  heart ;  imitates  at  table  the  gurgling 
of  a  bottle  by  filliping  with  his  finger  on  his  stretched 
cheek  ;  knows  how  to  draw  in  beer  by  sucking  in 
the  air  between  his  lips ;  taps  with  heavy  strokes 

*  Se  gaudir — to  be  merry,  to  live  in  clover. 
Caudriole — free  discourse,broad  jests. 


12  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

of  his  knife  on  the  champagne  glasses  without 
breaking  them  and  says  to  the  others  :  "  Do  that !  " 
which  impresses  the  timid  travellers  ;  contradicts 
those  who  are  well  informed,  presides  at  the  table 
and  gobbles  up  the  best  morsels.  A  capable  man, 
moreover,  he  could  at  times  leave  all  his  jestings 
and  appear  quite  serious  when,  throwing  away  the 
end  of  his  cigar,  he  would  say,  looking  at  a  town  : 
"  I  am  going  to  see  what  stuff  these  people  have  in 
them  !  "  Gaudissart  became  then  the  most  subtle, 
the  most  skilful  of  ambassadors.  He  knew  how  to 
enter  as  an  officer  of  the  administration  into  the 
presence  of  the  sub-prefect,  as  a  capitalist  into  that 
of  the  banker,  as  a  man  of  religion  and  a  monarchist 
into  that  of  the  royalist,  as  a  bourgeois  into  that  of 
the  bourgeois,  in  short,  he  was  everywhere  that 
which  he  should  be,  leaving  Gaudissart  at  the  door 
and  taking  him  up  again  when  he  came  out. 

Up  to  1830  the  illustrious  Gaudissart  had  remained 
faithful  to  the  article  Paris.  As  it  addresses  itself  to 
the  greater  number  of  human  fancies,  the  divers 
branches  of  this  commerce  had  enabled  him  to  ob- 
serve the  innermost  recesses  of  hearts,  had  in- 
structed him  in  the  secrets  of  his  attractive  elo- 
quence, in  the  manner  of  untying  the  strings  of  purses 
most  firmly  knotted,  of  arousing  the  desires  of  wives, 
of  husbands,  of  children,  of  servants,  and  persuading 
them  to  satisfy  them.  None  knew  better  than  he, 
the  art  of  enticing  dealers  by  the  fascinations  of  a 
bargain,  and  of  walking  off  at  the  moment  when  the 
desire  arrived  at  its  paroxysm.     Full  of  gratitude  to 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  13 

the  hat  trade,  he  would  say  that  it  was  in  dealing 
with  the  exterior  of  the  head  that  he  had  learned  to 
comprehend  the  interior ;  he  was  accustomed  to  pull 
the  hood  over  people's  eyes,  to  throw  himself  at 
their  heads,  etc.  His  jests  upon  the  subject  of  hats 
were  inexhaustible. 

Nevertheless,  after  August  and  October,  1830,  he 
quitted  the  hat  trade  and  the  article  Paris,  abandoned 
the  commissions  of  the  commerce  of  mechanical  and 
visible  things,  in  order  to  launch  himself  in  the  more 
elevated  spheres  of  Parisian  speculation.  He  aban- 
doned, he  said,  matter  for  thought,  the  manufac- 
tured products  for  the  infinitely  more  pure  elabora- 
tions of  the  intelligence.  This  requires  an  explana- 
tion. 

As  every  one  knows,  the  break-up  of  1830  brought 
to  life  again  a  number  of  old  ideas  which  the  skil- 
ful speculators  undertook  to  rejuvenate.  Since 
1830  more  especially,  ideas  have  become  property  ; 
and,  as  has  said  a  writer  clever  enough  not  to  pub- 
lish anything,  there  are  stolen  to-day  more  ideas 
than  handkerchiefs.  Perhaps,  some  day,  we  shall 
see  a  Bourse  for  ideas  ;  but  already,  good  or  bad, 
ideas  are  quoted,  are  gathered  in,  are  of  conse- 
quence, are  carried,  are  sold,  are  realized  and  bring 
in  profit.  If  he  do  not  find  any  ideas  to  sell,  the 
speculator  endeavors  to  get  certain  words  into  favor, 
gives  them  the  consistency  of  an  idea,  and  lives  on 
these  words  as  the  bird  does  on  its  grains  of  millet. 
You  need  not  laugh  !  A  word  is  worth  an  idea  in  a 
country  in  which  the  label  of  a  bag  has  greater  at- 


14  THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

traction  than  the  contents.  Have  we  not  seen  the 
book  trade  exploiting  the  word  picturesque,  when  lit- 
erature has  killed  the  word  fantastic  ?  Thus  the 
exchequer  has  conceived  the  intellectual  tax,  it  has 
accurately  estimated  the  field  of  advertisements,  reg- 
istered the  prospectuses  and  weighed  the  thoughts 
at  the  Stamp  Office,  Rue  de  la  Paix.  In  becoming 
a  matter  of  commerce,  intelligence  and  its  products 
naturally  obey  the  laws  of  other  manufacturing  in- 
terests. Thus  it  happens  that  ideas  conceived  in 
their  cups  by  the  brains  of  some  of  these  Parisians 
in  appearance  indolent,  but  who  wage  mental  battles 
while  emptying  bottles  or  discussing  the  leg  of  a 
pheasant,  were  delivered,  the  day  after  their  cere- 
bral birth,  to  certain  travelling  salesmen  charged 
with  presenting  skilfully,  urbi  et  orbi,  in  Paris  and 
in  the  provinces,  the  toasted  cheese  of  the  announce- 
ments and  prospectuses  by  means  of  which  are 
captured,  in  the  mousetrap  of  the  enterprise,  that 
rodent  of  the  rural  departments  commonly  called, 
sometimes  the  subscriber,  sometimes  the  share- 
holder, sometimes  corresponding  member,  some- 
times contributor  or  patron,  but  always,  every- 
where, a  ninny. 

"lama  ninny  !  "  has  exclaimed  more  than  one 
poor  proprietor,  attracted  by  the  prospect  of  being 
the  founder  of  something,  and  who,  in  the  end,  has 
seen  a  sum  of  a  thousand  or  twelve  hundred  francs 
founder  in  this  doubtful  sea. 

"  The  subscribers  are  ninnies  who  will  not  com- 
prehend that,  in  order  to  come  to  the  front  in  the 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  1 5 

kingdom  of  intellect,  more  money  is  required  than 
to  travel  in  Europe,"  etc.,  says  the  speculator. 

There  exists,  then,  a  perpetual  combat  between 
the  dilatory  public  which  refuses  to  pay  the  Pari- 
sian imposts,  and  the  collectors  who,  living  on  their 
receipts,  lard  the  public  with  new  ideas,  baste  it 
with  enterprises,  roast  it  with  prospectuses,  spit  it  on 
flatteries,  and  end  by  eating  it  with  some  new  sauce 
in  which  it  is  smothered,  and  with  which  it  intoxicates 
itself,  like  a  fly  in  plumbago.  Thus,  since  1830, 
what  has  not  been  lavished  in  order  to  stimulate  in 
France  the  zeal,  the  self-respect,  of  the  intelligent  and 
progressive  masses!  Titles,  medals,  diplomas,  a  sort 
of  Legion  of  Honor  for  the  commonalty  of  martyrs, 
have  rapidly  succeeded  each  other.  In  short,  every 
one  of  the  manufactories  of  intellectual  products  has 
discovered  a  pimento,  a  special  ginger,  its  great 
delight.  Hence,  premiums,  hence,  anticipated  divi- 
dends ;  hence,  that  conscription  of  celebrated  names 
levied  without  the  knowledge  of  the  unfortunate 
artists  who  bear  them  and  who  thus  find  themselves 
actively  co-operating  in  more  enterprises  than  the 
year  has  days, — for  the  law  has  not  foreseen  the 
theft  of  names.  Hence,  this  rape  of  ideas,  which 
quite  as  in  the  slave  markets  of  Asia,  the  exploiters 
of  the  public  mind  tear  from  the  paternal  brain, 
scarcely  yet  hatched,  and  strip  and  drag  before  the 
eyes  of  their  stupefied  sultan,  their  Schahabaham, 
this  terrible  public,  which,  if  they  do  not  amuse  it, 
strikes  off  their  head  by  taking  away  their  peck  of 
gold. 


16  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

This  craze  of  our  epoch,  then,  reacted  upon  the 
illustrious  Gaudissart,  and  in  this  manner.  A  cer- 
tain company  which  insured  against  loss  of  life  and 
of  capital  happened  to  hear  of  his  irresistible  elo- 
quence, and  proposed  to  him  unheard-of  advantages, 
which  he  accepted.  The  bargain  concluded,  the 
treaty  signed,  the  drummer  was  taken  to  be  weaned 
to  the  secretary-general  of  the  administration,  who 
loosened  the  intelligence  of  Gaudissart  from  its 
swaddling-bands,  expounded  to  him  the  mysteries  of 
the  business,  instructed  him  in  its  slang,  demon- 
strated the  mechanism  of  it  to  him  piece  by  piece, 
dissected  for  him  the  special  public  which  he  would 
have  to  exploit,  stuffed  him  with  phrases,  nourished 
him  with  answers  to  improvise,  provisioned  him 
with  unanswerable  arguments  ;  and,  in  short,  sharp- 
ened the  edge  of  the  tongue  which  was  to  operate 
upon  life  in  France.  Now,  the  chubby  infant  re- 
sponded admirably  to  the  cares  which  were  lavished 
upon  it  by  monsieur  the  secretary-general.  The 
directors  of  the  insurance  against  loss  of  life  or  of 
capital  vaunted  so  highly  the  illustrious  Gaudissart, 
showed  him  so  many  attentions,  displayed  so 
strongly  in  the  light — in  the  sphere  of  high  banking 
and  of  high  intellectual  diplomacy — the  talents  of 
this  living  prospectus,  that  the  financial  directors  of 
two  journals,  celebrated  at  that  time  and  since  dead, 
conceived  the  idea  of  employing  him  for  the  gather- 
ing-in  of  subscriptions.  Le  Globe,  the  organ  of  the 
Saint-Simonian  doctrine,  Le  Mouvement,  a  Republican 
journal,  drew  the  illustrious  Gaudissart  into  their 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  17 

editorial  rooms  and  each  proposed  to  him  ten  francs  a 
head  for  every  subscriber  if  he  brought  in  a  thousand  ; 
but  only  five  francs  if  he  captured  only  five  hun- 
dred. The  "  line  "  of  political  journals  not  interfer- 
ing with  the  insurance  "  line,"  the  bargain  was  con- 
cluded. Nevertheless,  Gaudissart  claimed  an  in- 
demnity of  five  hundred  francs  for  the  week  during 
which  he  was  obliged  to  assimilate  the  doctrine  of 
Saint-Simon,  citing  the  prodigious  efforts  of  memory 
and  intelligence  necessary  to  become  thoroughly 
posted  on  this  article,  and  to  be  able  to  argue  con- 
veniently about  it,  "  so  as  not  to  be  taken  in  your- 
self," as  he  said.  He  asked  nothing  of  the  Repub- 
licans. In  the  first  place,  he  inclined  to  Republican 
ideas,  the  only  ones  which,  according  to  the  Gau- 
dissart philosophy,  could  bring  about  a  rational 
equality  ;  then  Gaudissart  had  already  dipped  into 
the  conspiracies  of  the  French  carbonari;  he  was 
arrested,  but  released  because  of  lack  of  evidence 
against  him  ;  finally,  he  observed  to  the  bankers  of 
the  journal  that,  since  July,  he  had  allowed  his 
moustaches  to  grow,  and  that  he  now  lacked  noth- 
ing but  a  certain  cap  and  a  pair  of  long  spurs  to  ade- 
quately represent  the  Republic.  During  a  whole 
week,  he  therefore  went  to  have  himself  Saint- 
Simonized  in  the  mornings  at  the  Globe,  and  has- 
tened to  learn  in  the  afternoons  in  the  insurance 
offices  the  subtleties  of  the  financial  language.  His 
aptitude,  his  memory,  were  so  prodigious  that  he 
was  able  to  start  out  about  the  15th  of  April,  the 
date    at  which    he    usually  opened    his    campaign 


l8  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

every  year.  Two  great  business  houses,  affrighted 
by  the  falling  off  in  their  trade,  seduced,  as  it  was 
said,  the  ambitious  Gaudissart  and  determined  him 
to  take  their  commissions  also.  The  king  of  drum- 
mers showed  himself  merciful  in  consideration  of 
their  being  old  friends,  and  also  because  of  the 
enormous  premiums  which  they  allowed  him. 

"  Listen,  my  little  Jenny — "  said  he,  in  a  fiacre,  to 
a  pretty  florist. 

All  truly  great  men  love  to  allow  themselves  to 
be  tyrannized  over  by  a  feeble  being,  and  Gaudis- 
sart had  his  tyrant  in  Jenny  ;  he  was  bringing  her 
back  at  eleven  o'clock  from  the  Gymnase,  to  which 
he  had  conducted  her,  in  grand  toilet,  into  a  pros- 
cenium box  of  the  first  row. 

"  On  my  return,  Jenny,  1  will  furnish  your  cham- 
ber, and  in  the  very  best  manner.  That  big  Ma- 
thilde,  who  rasps  you  with  her  comparisons,  her 
real  India  shawl  brought  by  the  couriers  of  the 
Russian  embassy,  her  silverware  and  her  Russian 
prince — who  appears  to  me  a  very  great  humbug — 
will  have  nothing  more  to  say.  I  consecrate  to  the 
adornment  of  your  chamber  all  the  Children  that  I 
shall  make  in  the  provinces." 

"  Well  now,  that  is  very  nice  !  "  cried  the  florist. 
"  How  then,  monster  of  •  a  man,  you  speak  quietly 
to  me  of  making  children,  and  you  think  that  I  will 
permit  that  sort  of  work  ?  " 

"  Ah,  there  !  are  you  getting  stupid,  my  Jenny  ? 
— That  is  a  way  of  speaking  we  have  in  our  trade." 

"  It  is  very  pretty,  your  trade  !  " 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  19 

"  But  listen  then  ;  if  you  talk  all  the  time,  you 
will'always  be  right." 

"  I  mean  to  be  right  all  the  time  !  Upon  my  word, 
you  are  taking  things  easy  !  " 

"  You  will  not  then  let  me  explain  ?  I  have  taken 
under  my  protection  an  excellent  idea,  a  journal 
which  they  are  going  to  publish  for  children.  In  our 
line,  the  drummers,  when  they  have  made  in  a 
town,  we  will  suppose,  ten  subscribers  to  the 
Children's  Journal,  say  :  '  I  have  made  ten  Chil- 
dren;' as,  if  I  make  there  ten  subscribers  to  the 
journal  called  Le  Mouvement,  I  would  say  :  '  I  have 
made  this  evening  ten  Mouvements.'  Do  you  under- 
stand now  ?  " 

"  That  is  nice  !  You  are  going  into  politics  then  ! 
I  see  you  already  at  Sainte-Pelagie,  to  which  I  shall 
have  to  trot  every  day.  Oh !  when  you  start 
out  to  love  a  man,  if  you  only  knew  what  you  were 
getting  into,  on  my  word  of  honor,  you  would  be  left 
to  manage  your  own  affairs,  you  men  !  Come  now, 
if  you  are  going  off  to-morrow,  we  will  not  bother 
ourselves  with  any  such  disagreeable  things  ;  they 
are  too  stupid." 

The  fiacre  stopped  before  a  pretty  house  newly 
erected  in  the  Rue  d'Artois,  in  which  Gaudissart 
and  Jenny  ascended  to  the  fourth  floor.  There 
lived  Mademoiselle  Jenny  Courand,  who  was  gener- 
ally considered  to  have  been  secretly  married  to 
Gaudissart,  a  rumor  which  the  drummer  did  not 
deny.  In  order  to  maintain  her  despotism,  Jenny 
Courand  compelled  the  illustrious  Gaudissart  to  ob- 


20  THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

serve  a  thousand  little  details,  menacing  him  always 
with  prompt  abandonment  if  he  failed  in  the  most 
minute.  Gaudissart  must  now  write  to  her  from 
every  town  in  which  he  stopped  and  render  her  an 
account  of  his  slightest  action. 

"  And  how  many  Children  will  it  require  to  fur- 
nish my  chamber  ?  "  she  asked,  throwing  off  her 
shawl  and  seating  herself  before  a  good  fire. 

"  I  get  five  sous  for  each  subscription." 

"  Beautiful !  And  it  is  with  five  sous  that  you 
pretend  you  are  going  to  make  me  rich  !  not  unless 
you  go  as  long  as  the  Wandering  Jew,  and  unless 
you  have  your  pockets  well  sewed  up." 

"  But  Jenny,  I  will  make  thousands  of  Children! 
Just  think,  the  children  have  never  had  a  journal  of 
their  own.  However,  I  am  very  stupid  to  try  to  ex- 
plain to  you  business  affairs,  you  understand  nothing 
of  these  things." 

"  Well  then,  tell  me  then,  tell  me,  Gaudissart,  if 
I  am  so  stupid,  why  do  you  love  me  ?  " 

"Because  you  are  stupidly — sublime!  Listen, 
Jenny.  Don't  you  see  that,  if  I  take  Le  Globe,  Le 
Mouvement,  the  insurance  and  my  articles  Paris,  in- 
stead of  earning  eight  or  ten  miserable  thousand  francs 
'a  year  by  breaking  my  back,  like  a  Mayeux,  I  shall 
be  able  to  bring  back  twenty  to  thirty  thousand 
francs  from  each  journey." 

"  Unlace  me,  Gaudissart,  and  do  it  right,  do  not 
pull  me  about." 

"Then,"  said  the  drummer,  looking  at  the  pol- 
ished back  of  the  florist,  "  I  become  a  shareholder  in 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  21 

the  journals,  like  Finot,  one  of  my  friends,  the  son 
of  a  hatter,  who  has  now  thirty  thousand  francs  in- 
come, and  who  is  going  to  be  made  peer  of  France  ! 
When  you  think  that  the  little  Popinot — Ah  !  Mon 
Dieu!  but  I  forgot  to  say  that  Monsieur  Popinot  was 
yesterday  appointed  Minister  of  Commerce — why 
should  I  not  have  some  ambition,  I  myself  ?  Eh  ! 
eh  !  I  would  know  how  perfectly  to  pick  up  the  gab- 
ble of  the  tribune  and  might  become  minister, 
and  a  swaggering  fellow !  Wait  now,  listen  to 
me  : 

"  Messieurs,"  he  said,  taking  his  stand  behind  an 
easy-chair,  "  the  press  is  neither  an  instrument  nor 
a  commerce.  Considered  in  its  political  aspect,  the 
press  is  an  institution.  Now,  we  are  obstinately 
disposed  here  to  see  everything  politically  ;  there- 
fore,— he  took  breath — therefore,  we  have  to  ex- 
amine if  it  is  useful  or  injurious,  to  be  encouraged 
or  to  be  suppressed,  if  it  should  be  taxed  or  free, — 
grave  questions  !  I  do  not  feel  that  I  shall  waste  the 
time,  always  so  precious,  of  the  Chamber,  in  ex- 
amining this  article  and  in  bringing  its  conditions  to 
your  notice.  We  are  marching  toward  an  abyss. 
Certainly  the  laws  are  not  furnished  as  they  should 
be—" 

"  What  do  you  say  to  that  ?  "  he  said,  looking  at 
Jenny.  "  All  the  orators  make  France  march 
toward  an  abyss  ;  they  say  that  or  they  speak  of 
the  chariot  of  state,  of  tempests  and  of  the  political 
horizons.  Don't  I  know  all  the  tricks  !  1  have  the 
knack  of  every  business.     Do  you  know  why  ?     I 


22  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

was  born  with  a  caul.  My  mother  kept  my  caul,  I 
will  give  it  to  you  !  Therefore,  I  shall  soon  be  in 
power,  I  shall  !  " 

"You  will?" 

"  Why  should  I  not  be  Baron  Gaudissart,  peer  of 
France  ?  Have  they  not  already  twice  made  Mon- 
sieur Popinot  deputy  in  the  fourth  arrondissement  ? 
He  dines  with  Louis-Philippe  !  Finot  is  going,  they 
say,  to  be  Counselor  of  State !  Ah !  if  they 
should  send  me  to  London  as  ambassador,  it  is  I  who 
say  it  to  you  that  I  would  stump  the  English. 
Never  has  anyone  pulled  the  wool  over  the  eyes  of 
Gaudissart,  the  illustrious  Gaudissart.  Yes,  never 
has  anyone  got  the  better  of  me,  and  never  will  any- 
one get  the  better  of  me,  in  whatever  line  it  may  be, 
politics  or  impolitics,  here  as  in  any  other  place. 
But,  for  the  present,  it  is  necessary  that  I  should  de- 
vote myself  to  each,  to  the  Globe,  to  the  Mouvement, 
to  the  Children  and  to  the  article  Paris." 

"  You  will  get  yourself  caught  with  your  journals. 
I  bet  that  you  will  not  get  as  far  as  Poitiers  before 
you  are  nabbed." 

"  What  will  you  wager,  mignonne  ?  " 

"  A  shawl." 

"  Good  !  if  I  lose  the  shawl,  I  will  return  to  my 
article  Paris  and  the  hat  trade.  But,  get  the  best  of 
Gaudissart!  never,  never !  " 

And  the  illustrious  drummer  struck  an  attitude  be- 
fore Jenny,  looked  at  her  proudly,  his  hand  thrust 
in  his  waistcoat,  the  head  in  three-quarter  view,  a 
Napoleonic  attitude. 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS   GAUDISSART  23 

"  Oh  !  aren't  you  funny  !  What  have  you  had  to 
eat  to-night  ?  " 

Gaudissart  was  a  man  of  thirty-eight  years  of 
age,  of  medium  stature,  big  and  fat,  like  a  man  ac- 
customed to  rolling  around  in  a  diligence  ;  a  face  as 
round  as  a  pumpkin,  full  colored,  regular  in  feature 
and  similar  to  those  classic  visages  adopted  by  the 
sculptors  of  all  countries  for  the  statues  of  Plenty, 
Law,  Force,  Commerce,  etc.  His  protuberant  stom- 
ach took  on  the  shape  of  a  pear ;  his  legs  were  small, 
but  he  was  agile  and  nervous.  He  took  Jenny  half- 
undressed  and  carried  her  to  her  bed. 

"Keep  quiet,  emancipated  woman  I"  he  said. 
"  You  do  not  know  what  the  emancipated  woman  is, 
the  Saint-Simonism,  the  antagonism,  the  Fourierism, 
the  criticism,  and  the  passionate  exploitation  ;  well, 
it  is — in  short,  it  is  ten  francs  by  subscription, 
Madame  Gaudissart." 

"  Upon  my  word  of  honor,  you  are  going  crazy, 
Gaudissart." 

"Always  more  crazy  for  you!"  he  exclaimed, 
throwing  his  hat  upon  the  florist's  divan. 

The  next  morning,  Gaudissart,  after  a  notable 
dejeuner  with  Jenny  Courand,  set  off  on  horseback, 
in  order  to  visit  the  chief  places  of  the  canton,  the  ex- 
ploration of  which  had  been  particularly  recommended 
to  him  by  the  divers  enterprises  to  the  success  of 
which  he  had  devoted  his  talents.  After  having  em- 
ployed forty-five  days  in  beating  up  the  country  be- 
tween Paris  and  Blois,  he  remained  for  two  weeks  in 
the  latter  city,  occupied  with  his  correspondence  and 


24  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

in  visiting  the  bonrgs  of  the  department.  The  evening 
of  his  departure  for  Tours  he  wrote  to  Mademoiselle 
Jenny  Courand  the  following  letter,  the  conciseness 
and  the  charm  of  which  cannot  be  equalled  by  any 
recital,  and  which  proves,  moreover,  the  particular 
legality  of  the  ties  by  which  these  two  persons  were 
united  : 

Letter  of  Gaudissart  to  jenny  Courand 

"  My  dear  Jenny,  I  think  that  you  will  lose  your  bet.  Like 
Napoleon,  Gaudissart  has  his  star  ;  and  will  have  no  Waterloo. 
I  have  triumphed  everywhere  under  the  given  conditions.  The 
insurance  business  is  doing  very  well.  I  have,  between  Paris 
and  Blois,  placed  nearly  two  millions  ;  but,  in  proportion  as  I 
advance  toward  the  centre  of  France,  the  heads  become  singu- 
larly more  hard,  and  consequently  the  millions  infinitely  more 
rare.  The  article  Paris  goes  along  on  its  comfortable  little  road. 
It  is  a  ring  on  the  finger.  With  my  old  trick  I  spit  them  per- 
fectly, these  good  shopkeepers.  I  placed  a  hundred  and  sixty- 
two  Ternaux  cashmere  shawls  in  Orleans.  I  do  not  know, 
upon  my  word  of  honor,  what  they  will  do  with  them,  unless 
they  put  them  back  on  the  backs  of  their  sheep.  As  to  the 
article  journals,  the  devil !  that  is  another  pair  of  sleeves. 
Great,  holy  good  Lord !  what  a  lot  of  whistling  it  takes  to 
teach  these  individuals  a  new  tune.  I  have  as  yet  only  made 
sixty-two  Mouvements.  That  is,  in  my  whole  route,  a  hundred 
less  than  the  Ternaux  shawls  in  a  single  town.  These  hum- 
bugs of  Republicans,  they  do  not  subscribe  at  all ;  you  talk 
with  them,  they  talk,  they  are  quite  of  your  opinion,  and  you 
are  presently  fully  agreed  to  overturn  everything  that  exists. 
You  think  then  that  the  man  will  subscribe  ?  Ah  !  well,  yes, 
he  does  nothing  of  the  kind  !  It  is  enough  that  he  has  three 
inches  of  ground,  enough  to  grow  a  dozen  cabbages,  or  enough 
wood  to  make  himself  a  toothpick,  my  good  man  then  begins  to 
talk  of  the  consolidation  of  properties,  of  imposts,  of  returns,  of 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  25 

indemnities,  a  heap  of  stupidities,  and  I  expend  my  time  and  my 
saliva  in  patriotism.  It  is  a  bad  business  !  Generally  speak- 
ing, the  Mouvement  is  flabby.  I  write  so  to  these  messieurs. 
This  disgusts  me,  considering  my  opinions.  As  for  the  Globe, 
that  is  of  another  breed.  When  you  speak  of  new  doctrines 
to  people  whom  you  think  likely  to  be  interested  in  these  fads, 
it  would  seem  that  you  were  proposing  to  them  to  set  fire  to 
their  houses.  It  is  all  very  well  for  me  to  say  to  them  tint  it  is 
for  the  future,  self-interests  properly  understood,  enterprises  in 
which  nothing  can  be  lost ;  that  man  has  now  preyed  upon 
man  for  a  sufficiently  long  time,  and  that  woman  has  been  a 
slave,  that  it  is  necessary  to  bring  about  the  triumph  of  the 
great  providential  thought  and  to  obtain  a  more  rational  coordi- 
nation of  the  social  order,  in  short,  all  the  reverberation  of  my 
phrases.  Ah  !  well  yes,  when  I  open  up  these  ideas,  the  people 
in  the  provinces  shut  up  their  cupboards,  as  if  I  were  going  to 
carry  away  something  of  theirs,  and  ask  me  to  take  myself  off. 
They  are  stupid,  these  geese !  Le  Globe  is  no  good.  I  have 
said  to  them  : 

"  '  You  are  too  far  advanced  ;  you  are  going  forward,  that 
is  all  very  well ;  but  results  are  wanted,  the  provinces  love 
results.' 

"  However,  I  have  already  done  a  hundred  Globes,  and,  con- 
sidering the  thickness  of  these  country  headpieces,  that  is  a 
miracle.  But  I  promise  them  so  many  fine  things  that  I  do  not 
know,  upon  my  word  of  honor,  what  the  Globules,  Globists, 
Globards  or  Globiens,  will  do  to  realize  them ;  but,  as  they 
have  told  me  that  they  would  have  the  world  ordered  infinitely 
better  than  it  is,  I  go  ahead  and  prophesy  at  the  rate  of  ten 
francs  a  subscription.  There  was  a  farmer  who  thought  that 
that  concerned  lands,  because  of  the  name,  and  I  stuck  him 
into  the  Globe.  Bah  !  he  will  take  hold  of  it,  that  is  sure,  he 
has  a  protuberant  forehead,  all  the  protuberant  foreheads  are 
ideologists.  Ah !  talk  to  me  of  the  Children  !  I  have  made 
two  thousand  Children  between  Paris  and  Blois.  A  nice  little 
business  !  There  is  not  very  much  to  be  said.  You  show  the 
little  vignette  to  the  mother,  hiding  it  from  the  child  because 


26  THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

the  child  wishes  to  see  it ;  naturally,  the  child  does  see  it,  it 
pulls  Mamma  by  her  dress  until  it  gets  its  journal,  because  Papa 
has  dot  his  journal.  Mamma  has  on  a  dress  worth  twenty 
francs,  and  does  not  want  to  have  it  torn  by  her  little  dear ;  the 
journal  only  costs  six  francs,  there  is  economy  in  it,  the  sub- 
scriptions flow  freely.  An  excellent  thing,  it  is  a  real  need,  it 
is  placed  between  candy  and  pictures,  two  eternal  necessities 
of  childhood.  They  are  reading  already,  these  desperate 
infants ! 

"  I  have  had  here,  at  the  table  d'hote,  a  quarrel,  apropos  of 
these  journals  and  my  opinions.  1  was  eating  peacefully  by 
the  side  of  a  monsieur,  with  a  gray  hat,  who  was  reading  Les 
Debats.    I  said  to  myself : 

"  '  I  must  try  my  tribunal  eloquence.  Here  is  one  who  is 
for  the  dynasty,  I  will  endeavor  to  cook  him.  This  triumph 
will  be  a  famous  proof  of  my  ministerial  talents.' 

"  And  I  set  myself  to  work,  beginning  by  praising  his  jour- 
nal to  him.  What  do  you  think  of  that !  that  was  drawing  it 
out  fine  enough.  From  the  egg  to  the  chicken,  I  set  myself  to 
gradually  getting  the  better  of  my  man,  launching  upon  him 
all  the  four-horse  phrases,  the  reasonings  in  F  sharp  and  the 
whole  blessed  machine.  Everyone  listened  to  me,  and  I  saw 
a  man  who  had  the  July  movement  in  his  moustaches  ready  to 
bite  at  the  Mouvement.  But  I  don't  know  how  it  was  that  I 
allowed  to  escape  inappropriately  the  word  blockhead.  Bah  ! 
then  you  might  have  seen  my  dynastic  hat,  my  gray  hat,  a 
bad  hat,  for  that  matter,  made  in  Lyons,  half-silk,  half-cotton, 
rear  up  and  take  the  bit  between  his  teeth.  For  my  part,  I 
reassumed  my  grand  air,  you  know,  and  I  said  to  him  : 

"  '  Ah  there  !  monsieur,  you  are  a  singular  fellow  !  If  you 
are  not  content,  I  will  give  you  satisfaction,  1  fought  in  July.' 

"  '  Although  the  father  of  a  family,'  he  said  to  me,  '  I  am 
ready  to — ' 

"  '  You  are  the  father  of  a  family,  my  dear  monsieur,'  I  said 
to  him.     '  Have  you  any  children  ? ' 

"  '  Yes,  monsieur.' 

"  '  Eleven  years  of  age  ? ' 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  27 

" '  About  that.' 

"  '  Well,  monsieur,  the  Journal  des  Enfants  is  about  to  appear, 
— six  francs  a  year,  one  number  a  month,  two  columns,  edited 
by  the  loftiest  literary  talent,  a  journal  well  gotten  up,  solid 
paper,  engravings  from  the  clever  crayons  of  our  best  artists, 
like  real  East  Indian  designs,  the  colors  of  which  will  not  fade.' 

"  Then  I  letfly  my  broadside.  There  was  aconfused  father ! 
The  quarrel  ended  by  a  subscription. 

"  '  It  is  only  Gaudissart  who  can  do  such  tricks  as  that ! ' 
said  the  little  cricket  of  a  Lamard  to  that  great  imbecile  Bulot, 
relating  the  scene  to  him  in  the  cafe. 

"  I  go  off  to-morrow  for  Amboise.  I  will  do  Amboise  in  two 
days,  and  I  will  write  you  then  from  Tours,  where  I  am  going 
to  try  to  measure  myself  against  the  countries  the  most  color- 
less with  regard  to  intelligent  and  speculative  things.  But,  on 
the  word  of  Gaudissart,  they  shall  be  whacked,  they  will  be 
whacked !  whacked !  Adieu,  my  little  one !  Love  me  always, 
and  be  faithful.  Fidelity,  under  all  circumstances,  is  one  of  the 
qualities  of  the  emancipated  woman.  Who  is  it  that  kisses 
you  on  the  eyes  ? 

"Thy  FELIX  for  ever." 


Five  days  later,  Gaudissart  departed  one  morn- 
ing from  the  hotel  of  the  Faisan,  where  he  lodged 
while  in  Tours,  and  went  to  Vouvray,  a  rich  and 
populous  canton,  the  peculiar  genius  of  which 
seemed  to  him  to  be  susceptible  of  being  exploited. 
Mounted  on  his  horse,  he  trotted  along  the  causeway, 
thinking  no  more  of  his  phrases  than  the  actor 
thinks  of  the  role  which  he  has  played  a  hundred 
times.  The  illustrious  Gaudissart  went  along,  ad- 
miring the  landscape,  and  proceeding  carelessly, 
without  suspecting  that  in  the  joyous  valleys  of 
Vouvray  would  perish  his  commercial  infallibility. 


28       THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

Here,  a  few  explanations  upon  the  peculiar  genius 
of  Touraine  become  necessary.  The  sly,  story- 
telling, bantering,  epigrammatic  spirit  with  which 
each  page  of  the  work  of  Rabelais  is  impressed,  ex- 
presses faithfully  the  Tourangian  spirit,  fine  and 
polished  as  it  should  be  in  a  country  in  which  the 
kings  of  France  long  held  their  court ;  a  spirit 
ardent,  artistic,  poetic,  voluptuous,  but  of  which 
the  first  impulses  quickly  disappear.  The  softness 
of  the  air,  the  beauty  of  the  climate,  a  certain  facil- 
ity of  existence  and  the  genial  manners  there  soon 
smother  the  sentiment  of  art,  contract  the  largest 
heart,  corrode  the  most  tenacious  of  wills.  Trans- 
plant the  Tourangian,  his  qualities  develop  and  pro- 
duce great  things,  as  has  been  proven  in  the  most 
diverse  spheres  of  activity,  Rabelais  and  Semblang ay, 
Plantin  the  printer  and  Descartes ;  Boucicault,  the 
Napoleon  of  his  time,  and  Pinaigrier,  who  painted 
the  greater  number  of  stained  glass  windows  in  the 
cathedrals  ;  then  Verville  and  Courier.  Thus  the 
Tourangian,  so  remarkable  abroad,  when  at  home 
remains  like  the  Indian  on  his  mat,  like  the  Turk  on 
his  divan.  He  employs  his  wit  in  mocking  his 
neighbor,  in  rejoicing,  and  arrives  at  the  end  of  life 
happy.  Touraine  is  the  veritable  abbey  of  Theleme, 
so  vaunted  in  the  book  of  Gargantna  ;  there  are  to 
be  found  there,  as  in  the  poet's  work,  the  complying 
sisterhood,  and  the  good  cheer  so  celebrated  by 
Rabelais  is  there  enthroned.  As  to  the  slothfulness, 
it  is  sublime,  and  admirably  expressed  by  this  pop- 
ular   saying:    "Tourangian,  do    you    want     some 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  29 

soup?"  "Yes."  "  Bring  your  porringer."  "I 
am  no  longer  hungry."  Is  it  to  the  joy  of  the  vine- 
yard, is  it  to  the  harmonious  softness  of  the  most 
beautiful  landscapes  in  France,  is  it  to  the  tranquil- 
lity of  a  country  to  which  foreign  arms  have  never 
penetrated,  that  is  due  the  soft  abandon  of  these 
easy  and  pleasant  manners?  To  these  questions, 
there  is  no  reply.  Go  into  this  Turkey  of  France, 
you  will  remain  there  indolent,  lazy,  happy.  Were 
you  as  ambitious  as  was  Napoleon,  or  a  poet  as  was 
Byron,  an  unknown,  invincible  force  obliges  you  to 
keep  your  poetry  for  yourself  and  converts  into 
dreams  your  ambitious  projects. 

The  illustrious  Gaudissart  was  about  to  meet 
there,  in  Vouvray,  one  of  those  indigenous  jokers, 
the  jests  of  whom  are  offensive  only  by  the  very 
perfection  of  the  jesting,  and  with  whom  he  had  to 
sustain  a  cruel  contest.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  the 
Tourangians  greatly  love  to  inherit  from  their  par- 
ents. Now,  the  doctrine  of  Saint-Simon  was  there 
particularly  held  in  hatred  and  vilipended,  but  as  they 
hold  in  hatred,  as  they  vilipend  in  Touraine,  with  a 
disdain  and  superiority  of  pleasantry  worthy  of  the 
land  of  good  stories  and  of  tricks  played  on  the 
neighbors, — a  spirit  which  disappears  day  by  day 
before  that  which  Lord  Byron  has  called  the  Eng- 
lish cant. 

After  having  landed  at  the  Soleil  d'or,  an  inn  kept 
by  Mitouflet,  a  former  grenadier  of  the  Imperial 
Guard  who  had  espoused  a  rich  vineyard  owner, 
and    to    whom    he   solemnly   confided     his    horse, 


30  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

Gaudissart,  to  his  undoing,  took  his  way  to  the 
house  of  malice  in  Vouvray,  to  that  of  the  merry- 
andrew  of  the  bourg,  the  wag  obliged  by  his  role 
and  by  his  nature  to  maintain  his  locality  in  cheer- 
fulness. This  rural  Figaro,  an  ex-dyer,  lived  in  the 
enjoyment  of  an  income  of  seven  or  eight  thousand 
francs,  of  a  pretty  house  seated  on  the  hill,  of  a  lit- 
tle plump  wife,  of  robust  health.  For  the  last  ten 
years  he  had  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  take  care  of  his 
garden  and  his  wife,  to  marry  his  daughter,  to  take 
his  hand  at  cards  in  the  evenings,  to  know  all  the 
scandals  that  pertained  to  his  jurisdiction,  to  inter- 
fere with  the  elections,  to  war  with  the  large  pro- 
prietors and  organize  good  dinners  ;  to  trot  about  on 
the  causeway,  to  go  to  see  what  was  going  on  in 
Tours  and  plague  the  cure  ;  finally,  for  his  greatest 
drama,  to  await  the  sale  of  a  piece  of  property  en- 
closed among  his  vines.  In  short,  he  led  the  Tou- 
rangian  life,  the  life  of  a  little  city  in  the  country. 
He  was,  moreover,  the  most  imposing  notability 
among  the  bourgeoisie,  the  head  of  the  small,  jealous, 
envious  proprietors,  ruminating  and  peddling  about 
in  great  contentment  evil  speakings  and  calumnies 
against  the  aristocracy,  beating  everything  down  to 
his  own  level,  enemy  of  superiority  of  any  kind, 
despising  it  even  with  the  admirable  calmness  of  ig- 
norance. Monsieur  Vernier — thus  was  named  this 
little  great  personage  of  the  bourg — was  just  finish- 
ing his  dejeuner,  between  his  wife  and  his  daughter, 
when  Gaudissart  presented  himself  in  the  room, 
through  the  windows  of  which  might  be  seen  the 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  31 

Loire  and  the  Cher,  one  of  the  most  cheerful  dining- 
rooms  in  all  the  country. 

"  Is  it  to  Monsieur  Vernier  himself  ? — "  said  the 
drummer,  bending  his  vertebral  column  with  so  much 
grace  that  it  seemed  to  be  elastic. 

"Yes,  monsieur,"  replied  the  malicious  dyer,  in- 
terrupting him  and  throwing  upon  him  a  scrutinizing 
look,  by  which  he  recognized  immediately  the 
species  of  man  with  whom  he  had  to  deal. 

"I  come,  monsieur,"  Gaudissart  continued,  "to 
claim  the  assistance  of  your  enlightenment  to  direct 
me  in  this  canton,  in  which  Mitouflet  has  informed 
me  that  you  exercise  the  greatest  influence.  Mon- 
sieur, I  have  been  sent  into  the  departments  for  an 
enterprise  of  the  highest  importance,  undertaken  by 
a  number  of  bankers  who  desire — " 

"  Who  desire  to  trick  us  out  of  something,"  said 
Vernier,  laughing,  accustomed  as  he  was  to  dealing 
with  the  commercial  travellers  and  to  see  them  com- 
ing to  their  point. 

"  Exactly,"  replied  the  illustrious  Gaudissart  with 
easy  insolence.  "But  you  must  know,  monsieur, 
since  you  have  so  fine  a  tact,  that  you  cannot  trick 
people  unless  they  find  some  profit  in  allowing  them- 
selves to  be  tricked.  I  entreat  you,  therefore,  not 
to  confound  me  with  the  common  drummers  who 
base  their  success  upon  trickery  or  upon  importu- 
nity. I  am  no  longer  a  drummer.  I  was,  monsieur, 
I  glory  in  it.  But,  to-day,  I  have  a  mission  of  the 
highest  importance  and  one  which  should  cause  me 
to  be  considered  by  superior  minds   as  a  man  who 


32  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

devotes  himself  to  the  enlightenment  of  his  country. 
Deign  to  listen  to  me,  monsieur,  and  you  will  see 
that  you  will  have  gained  a  great  deal  in  the  half- 
hour  of  conversation  which  I  have  the  honor  to  en- 
treat you  to  grant  me.  The  most  celebrated  bank- 
ers of  Paris  have  taken  a  part  in  this  affair,  not  fic- 
titiously, as  in  some  of  those  shameful  speculations 
which  I,  for  my  part,  designate  as  rat-traps  ;  no,  in- 
deed, it  is  no  longer  anything  of  the  kind  ;  I  do  not 
lend  myself,  for  my  part,  to  the  peddling  of  such 
fool-catchers.  No,  monsieur,  the  best  and  the  most 
respectable  houses  of  Paris  are  enlisted  in  this  en- 
terprise, both  as  interested  parties  and  as  a  guaran- 
tee— " 

Here,  Gaudissart  launched  into  the  full  tide  of  his 
eloquence,  and  Monsieur  Vernier  allowed  him  to  con- 
tinue, listening  with  an  apparent  interest  which  de- 
ceived Gaudissart.  But,  at  the  mere  word  of  guar- 
antee, Vernier  had  ceased  to  pay  attention  to  the 
drummer's  rhetoric,  he  was  thinking  of  some  good 
trick  to  play  him,  in  order  to  deliver  from  these 
Parisian  pests  a  country  justly  termed  barbarous  by 
the  speculators  who  can  bite  nothing  out  of  it. 

At  the  top  of  a  delicious  valley,  known  as  la  Vallee 
coquette  because  of  its  sinuosities,  of  its  windings 
which  spring  up  at  every  step  and  seem  all  the  more 
beautiful  as  you  advance,  whether  in  mounting  or 
descending  the  joyous  route,  lived  in  a  little  house 
surrounded  by  an  inclosure  of  vines,  a  half-witted 
man  named  Margaritis.  Of  Italian  origin,  Margaritis 
was  married,  had  no  children,  and  his  wife  took  care 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  33 

of  him  with  a  courage  that  was  generally  appre- 
ciated. Madame  Margaritis  certainly  ran  consider- 
able danger  in  the  company  of  a  man  who,  among 
other  manias,  insisted  upon  carrying  always  upon 
himself  two  long-bladed  knives,  with  which  he 
sometimes  threatened  her.  But  who  does  not  know 
the  admirable  devotion  with  which  the  inhabitants 
of  the  provinces  consecrate  themselves  to  the  care 
of  their  suffering,  perhaps  because  of  the  reproach 
which  is  attached  to  a  bourgeois  wife  who  abandons 
her  child  or  her  husband  to  the  public  care  of  a  hos- 
pital ?  Then,  who  does  not  know,  also,  of  the  great 
repugnance  which  the  provincials  entertain  for  pay- 
ing the  charge  of  a  hundred  louis  or  a  thousand  ecus 
required  by  Charenton  or  by  the  insane  asylums  ? 
If  anyone  spoke  to  Madame  Margaritis  of  the  doctors 
Dubuisson,  Esquirol,  Blanche,  or  others,  she  pre- 
ferred, with  a  noble  indignation,  to  keep  her  three 
thousand  francs  in  keeping  her  goodman.  The  in- 
comprehensible whims  which  his  mania  inspired  in 
this  goodman  having  much  to  do  with  the  denoOment 
of  this  adventure,  it  will  be  necessary  to  indicate  the 
most  striking  of  them.  Whenever  it  rained  in  tor- 
rents, Margaritis  immediately  went  out  to  walk 
about  bare-headed  among  his  vines.  In  the  house, 
he  was  constantly  asking  for  the  newspaper ;  to 
content  him,  his  wife  or  his  servant  gave  him  an 
old  newspaper  of  the  Indre-et-Loire  department ; 
and  in  the  course  of  the  last  seven  years  he  had  not 
yet  perceived  that  he  always  read  the  same  number. 
Perhaps  a  physician  would  not  have  observed  with- 
3 


34  THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

out  interest  the  relation  which  existed  between  the 
constant  recurrence  of  these  demands  for  the  paper 
and  the  atmospheric  variations.  The  most  constant 
occupation  of  this  lunatic  was  to  observe  the  condi- 
tion of  the  sky,  relative  to  its  effects  upon  the  vines. 
Usually,  when  his  wife  had  company,  which  was 
almost  every  evening,  the  neighbors,  taking  pity 
upon  her,  came  to  play  boston  with  her.  Margaritis 
remained  silent,  placing  himself  in  a  corner  from 
which  he  did  not  stir ;  but,  when  ten  o'clock  sounded 
from  his  clock,  enclosed  in  a  great  oblong  case,  he 
rose  at  the  last  stroke  with  the  mechanical  precision 
of  those  figures  set  in  motion  by  a  spring  in  the  little 
chimes  of  the  German  toys,  he  advanced  slowly 
toward  the  players,  threw  upon  them  a  look  very 
like  the  automatic  glance  of  the  Greeks  and  the 
Turks  exposed  upon  the  Boulevard  du  Temple  at 
Paris,  and  said  to  them:  "Be  off!"  At  certain 
periods,  this  man  recovered  his  former  sanity,  and 
then  gave  to  his  wife  excellent  advice  concerning  the 
sale  of  his  wines  ;  but  he  then  became  extremely 
troublesome,  he  stole  the  tid-bits  from  the  cupboards 
and  devoured  them  secretly.  Sometimes,  when  the 
usual  visitors  to  the  house  entered,  he  would  reply 
to  their  questions  with  civility,  but  more  often  his 
answers  were  most  incoherent.  Thus,  to  a  lady 
who  asked  him  :  "  How  do  you  feel  to-day,  Monsieur 
Margaritis  ?  " — "  I  have  shaved  ;  and  you  ?  "  he  re- 
plied to  her.  "  Are  you  better,  monsieur  ? " 
another  asked  him. — "Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,"  he 
responded.     But,  usually,  he  looked  at  his  guests 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  35 

with  a  stupid  air,  without  saying  a  word,  and  his 
wife  then  said  of  him  :  "  The  goodman  hears  nothing 
to-day."  Two  or  three  times  in  the  course  of  five 
years  it  happened  to  him,  always  about  the  period 
of  the  equinoxes,  to  fall  into  a  fury  at  this  observa- 
tion, to  draw  one  of  his  two  knives  and  to  cry  : 
"This  strumpet  dishonors  me!"  Otherwise,  he 
drank,  ate,  walked  about,  like  a  man  in  perfect 
health.  Thus  everyone  had  finally  come  to  pay 
him  no  more  respect  and  attention  than  to  a  great 
piece  of  furniture.  Among  all  his  whimsicalities, 
there  was  one  of  which  no  one  could  discover  the 
meaning  ;  for,  in  the  long  run,  the  clever  ones  of  the 
countryside  had  finally  commented  upon  and  ex- 
plained the  most  unreasonable  actions  of  this  lunatic. 
He  always  insisted  upon  having  a  bag  of  meal  in  the 
house,  and  upon  keeping  two  casks  of  wine  of  his 
vintage,  without  permitting  anyone  to  touch  either 
the  meal  or  the  wine.  But,  when  the  month  of  June 
arrived,  he  insisted  upon  the  sale  of  the  bag  and  of 
the  two  casks  of  wine  with  all  the  obstinacy  of  a 
lunatic.  Madame  Margaritis  nearly  always  then  pre- 
tended to  him  to  have  sold  the  two  puncheons  at  an 
exorbitant  price,  and  handed  him  the  money,  which 
he  hid,  without  either  his  wife  or  his  servant  being 
able,  even  when  they  watched  him,  to  discover  the 
hiding-place. 

The  evening  before  the  day  on  which  Gaudissart 
came  to  Vouvray,  Madame  Margaritis  had  found 
more  trouble  than  ever  in  deceiving  her  husband, 
whose  reason  seemed  to  have  returned. 


36  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

"  I  do  not  know,  indeed,  how  I  shall  get  through 
to-morrow,"  she  had  said  to  Madame  Vernier. 
"  Just  imagine,  the  goodman  insisted  upon  seeing 
his  two  casks  of  wine.  He  has  so  bedevilled  me  all 
day  that  it  was  necessary  to  show  him  two  full  casks. 
Our  neighbor,  Pierre  Champlain,  had,  luckily,  two 
casks  which  he  had  not  been  able  to  sell ;  and,  at 
my  entreaty  he  rolled  them  into  my  cellar.  Ah 
there  !  what  do  you  think  !  the  goodman,  since  he 
has  seen  the  casks,  declares  that  he  is  going  to  sell 
them  off  himself !" 

Madame  Vernier  had  just  confided  to  her  husband 
the  trouble  in  which  Madame  Margaritis  found  her- 
self, a  moment  before  the  arrival  of  Gaudissart.  At 
the  first  word  of  the  commercial  traveller,  Vernier 
proposed  to  himself  to  match  him  with  the  goodman 
Margaritis. 

"  Monsieur,"  replied  the  ex-dyer,  when  the  illus- 
trious Gaudissart  had  fired  his  first  broadside,  "  I 
will  not  conceal  from  you  the  difficulties  which  your 
enterprise  must  encounter  here.  Our  country  is  a 
country  which  goes  along  in  the  rough,  suo  modo,  a. 
country  into  which  a  new  idea  never  penetrates.  We 
live  as  our  fathers  lived,  amusing  ourselves  by  eating 
four  meals  a  day,  by  occupying  ourselves  in  the  cul- 
tivation of  our  vines  and  disposing  well  of  our  wines. 
In  all  business  dealings,  we  endeavor  quite  simply 
to  sell  things  for  more  than  they  cost.  We  remain 
in  this  rut  without  either  God  or  the  Devil  being  able 
to  get  us  out  of  it.  But  I  am  going  to  give  you  a  bit 
of  good  advice,  and  good  advice  is  as  good  as  having 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  37 

an  eye  in  your  hand.  We  have  in  this  tourg  a 
former  banker  in  whose  enlightenment  I  have,  I  par- 
ticularly, the  greatest  confidence  ;  and,  if  you  obtain 
his  approval,  I  will  join  mine  to  it.  If  your  proposi- 
tions offer  real  advantages,  if  we  are  convinced  of  it, 
at  the  word  of  Monsieur  Margaritis,  which  will  have 
mine  with  it,  there  will  be  found  in  Vouvray,  twenty 
wealthy  houses  in  which  all  the  purses  will  open 
and  will  take  your  vulnerary." 

On  hearing  the  name  of  the  lunatic,  Madame  Ver- 
nier raised  her  head  and  looked  at  her  husband. 

"Wait,  to  be  sure!  my  wife  is  just  intending,  I 
think,  to  pay  a  visit  to  Madame  Margaritis,  to  whose 
house  she  is  going  with  one  of  our  women  neigh- 
bors. Wait  just  a  moment,  these  ladies  will  conduct 
you  there.  You  will  take  Madame  Fontanieu,"  said 
the  ex-dyer,  winking  at  his  wife. 

To  name  to  her  the  most  amusing,  the  most  elo- 
quent, the  most  jovial  gossip  in  the  whole  country, 
was  not  that  to  notify  Madame  Vernier  to  select  wit- 
nesses for  a  careful  observation  of  the  scene  which 
would  take  place  between  the  commercial  traveller 
and  the  lunatic,  so  that  the  bourg  might  have  some- 
thing with  which  to  amuse  itself  for  a  month  ? 
Monsieur  and  Madame  Vernier  played  their  parts  so 
well  that  Gaudissart  did  not  conceive  the  slightest 
suspicion  and  fell  plump  into  the  trap ;  he  offered 
his  arm  gallantly  to  Madame  Vernier  and  thought 
that  he  had  made  during  the  journey,  the  conquest 
of  the  two  ladies,  with  whom  he  was  quite  wonder- 
ful in  wit,  piquancy  and  uncomprehended  puns. 


189952 


38  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

The  house  of  the  pretended  banker  was  situated 
at  the  entrance  of  the  Coquette  Valley.  This 
dwelling,  known  as  La  Fuye,  was  in  no  wise  remark- 
able. On  the  ground  floor  was  a  large  wainscoted 
room,  on  each  side  of  which  was  a  bed-chamber, 
that  of  the  goodman  and  that  of  his  wife.  This 
large  room  was  entered  through  a  vestibule  which 
served  as  a  dining-room,  and  with  which  the  kitchen 
communicated.  This  ground  floor,  destitute  of  the 
exterior  elegance  which  distinguishes  the  humblest 
houses  in  Touraine,  was  surmounted  by  a  mansard 
story  to  which  you  mounted  by  a  stairway  built 
outside  the  house,  supported  against  one  of 
the  gable  ends  and  covered  by  a  pent  roof.  A 
little  garden,  full  of  marigolds,  syringas  and  elders, 
separated  the  house  from  the  enclosure.  Around 
the  courtyard  rose  the  buildings  used  in  the  wine 
making. 

Seated  in  his  main  room,  near  a  window,  in  an 
easy-chair  in  yellow  Utrecht  velvet,  Margaritis  did 
not  rise  when  he  saw  Gaudissart  and  the  two  ladies 
enter,  he  was  thinking  of  selling  his  two  casks  of 
wine.  He  was  a  dry-looking  man  whose  skull,  bald 
in  front  and  garnished  with  a  few  sparse  hairs  be- 
hind, was  pear-shaped.  His  sunken  eyes,  sur- 
mounted by  heavy  black  eyebrows  and  surrounded 
by  very  dark  circles,  his  nose  like  the  blade  of  a 
knife,  his  salient  maxillary  bones  and  his  hollow 
cheeks,  his  generally  extended  lines,  everything, 
even  to  his  immeasurably  long  and  flat  chin,  contrib- 
uted to  give  to  his  physiognomy  a  peculiar  expres- 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  39 

sion,  that  of  an  ancient  professor  of  rhetoric  or  of  a 
rag-picker. 

"Monsieur  Margaritis,"  said  Madame  Vernier  to 
him,  "  come  now,  stir  yourself  a  little  !  Here  is  a 
monsieur  whom  my  husband  sends  to  you,  he  must 
be  listened  to  attentively.  Leave  your  mathematical 
calculations,  and  talk  to  him." 

On  hearing  these  words,  the  lunatic  rose,  looked 
at  Gaudissart,  made  him  a  sign  to  be  seated  and 
said  to  him  : 

"  Let  us  talk,  monsieur." 

The  three  women  went  into  Madame  Margaritis's 
bed-chamber,  leaving  the  door  open,  so  that  they 
might  hear  all,  and  be  able  to  intervene  if  necessary. 
Scarcely  were  they  installed  when  Monsieur  Vernier 
came  softly  through  the  enclosure,  caused  the  win- 
dow to  be  opened  for  him  and  entered  noiselessly. 

"  Monsieur,"  said  Gaudissart,  "  has  been  in  busi- 
ness ? — " 

"  Of  State,"  replied  Margaritis,  interrupting  him. 
"  I  effected  the  pacification  of  Calabria  in  the  reign 
of  the  king  Murat." 

"  Well,  he  has  gone  to  Calabria  now,"  said 
Monsieur  Vernier  under  his  breath. 

"  Oh  !  then  we  shall  understand  each  other  per- 
fectly," replied  Gaudissart. 

"I  am  listening  to  you,"  responded  Margaritis, 
taking  the  attitude  of  a  man  who  is  posing  for  his 
portrait  before  a  painter. 

"  Monsieur,"  said  Gaudissart,  turning  the  key  of 
his  watch   and  giving   it  in  his  abstraction  an  in- 


40  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

cessant  rotary  and  regular  movement  which  inter- 
ested the  lunatic  very  much  and  perhaps  contributed 
to  keep  him  quiet;  "Monsieur,  if  you  were  not  a 
superior  man  " — here  the  lunatic  bowed, — "  I  should 
content  myself  by  enumerating  to  you  the  material 
advantages  of  this  enterprise,  the  psychological 
motives  of  which  are  worthy  of  being  exposed  to 
you.  Listen  !  of  all  social  riches,  is  not  time  the 
most  precious ;  and  to  economize  it,  is  not  that  to 
enrich  ourselves  ?  Now,  is  there  anything  in  life 
that  consumes  more  time  than  anxieties  over  what  I 
call  boiling  the  pot,  a  common  phrase  but  one  which 
states  the  question  neatly  !  Is  there  also  anything 
which  devours  more  time  than  the  lack  of  securities 
to  offer  those  from  whom  you  ask  money  at  a  period 
when,  poor  for  the  moment,  you  are  rich  in 
hope?" 

"Money, — yes,  that's  right,"  said  Margaritis. 

"  Well,  monsieur,  I  have  been  sent  into  the  de- 
partments by  a  company  of  bankers  and  capitalists, 
who  have  perceived  the  enormous  loss  which  is  thus 
sustained,  in  time  and  consequently  in  intelligence 
or  in  productive  activity,  by  the  men  of  the  future. 
Now,  we  have  conceived  the  idea  of  capitalizing  for 
these  men  this  same  future,  of  discounting  for  them 
their  talents,  in  discounting  for  them  what  ? — time 
dito,  and  of  insuring  its  value  to  their  heirs.  It  is 
no  longer  a  question  of  economizing  time,  but  of 
giving  it  a  price,  a  quotation,  of  representing  in  a 
pecuniary  sense  the  productions  which  you  presume 
you  will  obtain  in  this  region  of  the  intellect,  by 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  41 

representing  the  mental  qualities  with  which  you 
are  endowed  and  which  are,  monsieur,  live  forces, 
like  a  waterfall,  like  a  steam-engine  of  three,  ten, 
twenty,  fifty  horse-power.  Ah  !  this  is  progress, 
movement  toward  a  better  order  of  things,  a  move- 
ment due  to  the  activity  of  our  epoch,  essentially 
progressive,  as  I  will  prove  to  you,  when  we  shall 
come  to  consider  the  principles  involved  in  a  more 
logical  coordination  of  the  interests  of  society. 
I  will  explain  my  meaning  by  practical  examples. 
I  leave  purely  abstract  reasoning,  that  which  we 
designate,  we  others,  the  mathematics  of  ideas.  In- 
stead of  being  a  landed  proprietor,  living  on  your 
income,  you  are  a  painter,  a  musician,  an  artist,  a 
poet—" 

"  1  am  a  painter,"  said  the  lunatic,  as  in  a  paren- 
thesis. 

"Good,  so  be  it,  since  you  comprehend  so  well 
my  metaphor,  you  are  a  painter,  you  have  a  fine 
future  before  you,  a  rich  future.  But  I  will  go  still 
further—" 

On  hearing  these  words,  the  lunatic  examined 
Gaudissart  with  an  anxious  air  to  see  if  he  intended 
to  leave  the  house,  and  was  reassured  only  when  he 
perceived  that  he  remained  seated. 

"  You  may  be  even  nothing  at  all,"  said  Gaudis- 
sart continuing,  "  but  you  feel  yourself — " 

"  I  feel  myself,"  said  the  lunatic. 

"  You  say  to  yourself  :  '  I,  I  shall  be  a  minister.' 
Very  well,  you  a  painter,  you  an  artist,  you  a  man 
of  letters,  you  a  future  minister,  you  figure  up  your 


42  THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

hopes,  you  tax  them,  you  rate  yourself,  I  will  sup- 
pose, at  a  hundred  thousand  ecus — " 

"  You  are  bringing  me  then  a  hundred  thousand 
ecus?  "  said  the  lunatic. 

"Yes,  monsieur,  you  will  see.  Either,  your 
heirs  will  necessarily  finger  them  if  you  should  die, 
since  the  company  engages  to  deliver  the  money  to 
them,  or  you  will  receive  them  for  your  works  of 
art,  for  your  fortunate  speculations,  if  you  live.  If 
you  have  deceived  yourself,  you  may  even  com- 
mence again.  But,  when  you  have  once,  as  I  have 
had  the  honor  to  say  to  you,  fixed  the  amount  of 
your  intellectual  capital,  for  it  is  an  intellectual 
capital,  grasp  this  idea  firmly,  intellectual." 

"  I  understand,"  said  the  lunatic. 

"  You  sign  a  policy  of  insurance  with  the  com- 
pany, which  recognizes  a  value  of  a  hundred  thou- 
sand ecus,  to  you  painter — " 

"  1  am  a  painter,"  said  the  lunatic. 

"  No,"  resumed  Gaudissart ;  "  to  you,  musician  ; 
to  you,  minister,  and  engages  to  pay  them  to  your 
family,  to  your  heirs  if,  by  your  death,  the  hopes, 
the  pot  over  the  fire,  based  upon  the  intellectual 
capital,  should  be  overturned.  The  payment  of  a 
premium  suffices  to  consolidate  thus  your — " 

"Your  funds,"  said  the  lunatic,  interrupting. 

"  Why,  naturally,  monsieur.  I  see  that  monsieur 
has  been  in  business." 

"Yes,"  said  the  lunatic,  "  I  founded  the  Banque 
Territorial  of  the  Rue  des  Fosses-Montmartre,  at 
Paris,  in  1798." 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  43 

"For,"  resumed  Gaudissart,  "in  order  to  pay 
the  intellectual  capitals,  which  each  one  recognizes 
in  himself  and  attributes  to  himself,  does  it  not 
follow  that  the  generality  of  the  insured  should  pay 
a  certain  premium,  three  per  cent,  an  annuity  of 
three  per  cent  ?  Thus,  by  the  payment  of  an  in- 
significant sum,  a  nothing,  you  guarantee  your 
family  against  the  unfortunate  consequences  of  your 
death." 

"  But  I  am  living,"  said  the  lunatic. 

"  Ah  !  if  you  should  have  a  long  life  !  that  is  the 
objection  usually  made,  a  commonplace  objection, 
and  you  will  understand  that,  if  we  had  not  foreseen 
it,  demolished  it,  we  should  not  be  worthy  of  being 
— what  ? — what  are  we,  after  all  ?  book-keepers  in 
the  great  Bureau  of  Intellect.  Monsieur,  I  do  not 
say  this  to  you,  but  I  meet  everywhere  people  who 
have  the  pretension  of  teaching  something  new,  of 
revealing  some  line  of  reasoning  or  other,  to  those 
who  have  grown  gray  in  the  business  ! — on  my  word 
of  honor,  it  is  pitiful.  But  such  is  the  way  of  the 
world,  I  do  not  pretend  to  reform  it.  Your  objec- 
tion, monsieur,  is  destitute  of  sense." 

"Que'saco? — "  said  Margaritis. 

"  This  is  why.  If  you  live  and  possess  the 
qualities  which  are  estimated  in  your  policy  of  in- 
surance against  the  chances  of  death,  follow  me 
carefully — " 

"  I  am  following." 

"  Well,  you  have  succeeded  in  your  enterprises  ! 
you  have  been  obliged  to  succeed  precisely  because 


44  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

of  the  aforesaid  policy  of  insurance  ;  for  you  have 
doubled  your  chances  of  success  in  disembarrassing 
yourself  of  all  the  anxieties  which  one  has  when  one 
drags  with  one  a  wife,  children,  whom  one's  death 
would  reduce  to  the  most  frightful  poverty.  If  you 
have  succeeded,  you  have  then  realized  on  the 
intellectual  capital,  for  which  the  insurance  was  a 
bagatelle,  a  real  bagatelle,  a  pure  bagatelle." 

"  An  excellent  idea  !  " 

"Is  it  not,  monsieur?"  resumed  Gaudissart. 
"  I  have  named  this  beneficent  fund,  I  have,  the 
mutual  insurance  against  poverty  ! — or,  if  you  pre- 
fer, the  discounting  of  talent.  For  talent,  monsieur, 
talent  is  a  bill  of  exchange  which  nature  gives  to  the 
man  of  genius,  and  which  sometimes  has  a  very  long 
time  to  run — eh  !  eh  !  " 

"  Oh  !  what  fine  usury  !  "  cried  Margaritis. 

"  Eh  !  the  devil !  he  is  shrewd,  the  goodman.  I 
have  deceived  myself,"  thought  Gaudissart.  "It 
is  evident  that  I  must  overawe  my  man  by  the 
highest  considerations,  by  my  humbug,  No.  i. — 
Not  at  all,  monsieur,"  he  went  on  aloud,  "for  you 
who—" 

"  Will  you  accept  a  glass  of  wine  ?  "  asked  Mar- 
garitis. 

"  Willingly,"  replied  Gaudissart. 

"  Wife,  give  us  then  a  bottle  of  that  wine  of  which 
we  have  two  casks  left. — You  are  here  at  the  head 
of  Vouvray,"  said  the  goodman,  showing  his  vines 
to  Gaudissart.     "  The  close  Margaritis  !  " 

The  servant  maid  brought  glasses  and  a  bottle  of 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  45 

wine  of  the  year  18 19.  The  goodman  Margaritis 
poured  it  very  carefully  into  a  glass  and  presented 
it  solemnly  to  Gaudissart,  who  drank  it. 

"  But  you  have  caught  me,  monsieur,"  said  the 
commercial  traveller,  "this  is  Madeira,  true  Ma- 
deira." 

"  I  know  it,"  said  the  lunatic.  "  The  inconveni- 
ent quality  of  the  wine  of  Vouvray,  monsieur,  is 
that  it  can  not  be  used  either  as  ordinary  wine  or 
with  the  entremets  ;  it  is  too  generous,  too  strong  ; 
therefore  it  is  sold  to  you  in  Paris  for  Madeira  after 
having  been  mixed  with  brandy.  Our  wine  is  so 
luscious  and  sweet  that  many  dealers  in  Paris,  when 
our  vintage  is  not  good  enough  for  Holland  and 
Belgium,  purchase  our  wines  ;  they  mingle  them 
with  the  wines  of  the  neighborhood  of  Paris,  and 
make  of  them  thus  Bordeaux  wines.  But  that 
which  you  are  drinking  at  this  moment,  my  dear 
and  very  worthy  monsieur,  is  a  wine  for  the  king, 
the  head  of  Vouvray.  I  have  two  casks  of  it,  two 
casks  only.  Those  who  love  the  great  wines, 
the  high  wines,  and  who  wish  to  have  served 
on  their  tables,  qualities  superior  to  the  usual  ones 
of  commerce, — as  do  several  houses  of  Paris  who 
take  a  pride  in  their  wines — are  furnished  directly 
by  us.  Are  you  acquainted  with  any  persons 
who—?  " 

"Let  us  return  to  our  business,"  said  Gaudis- 
sart. 

"  We  are  doing  so,  monsieur,"  replied  the  lunatic. 
"  My    wine    is    capiteux — heady — capiteux    agrees 


46  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

with  capital  in  etymology  ;  now,  you  are  speaking  of 
capitals — do  you  see  ?  caput,  head  !  head  of  Vou- 
vray,  all  that  goes  together — " 

"  Thus  it  follows,"  said  Gaudissart,  "  either  you 
have  realized  on  your  intellectual  capitals — " 

"1  have  realized,  monsieur.  Would  you  like  to 
take  then  my  two  casks  ?  I  would  arrange  the 
terms  very  conveniently  for  you." 

"  No,  I  am  speaking,"  said  the  illustrious  Gaudis- 
sart, "of  the  insurance  upon  intellectual  capitals 
and  of  financial  operations  concerning  life.  I  resume 
my  argument." 

The  lunatic  grew  quiet,  resumed  his  former  atti- 
tude and  looked  at  Gaudissart. 

"  I  say,  monsieur,  <that  in  case  of  your  death,  the 
capital  will  be  paid  to  your  family  without  any 
difficulty. " 

"  Without  any  difficulty." 

"  Yes,  provided  there  is  no  suicide." 

"  A  question  of  quibbling." 

"  No,  monsieur.  As  you  know,  suicide  is  one  of 
those  acts  always  readily  proved." 

"  In  France,"  said  the  lunatic  ;  "  but — " 

"  But  abroad  ?  "  said  Gaudissart.  "  Well,  mon- 
sieur, to  finish  with  this  point,  I  will  say  to  you  that 
ordinary  death  when  abroad  and  death  on  the  field 
of  battle  are  outside  of — " 

"  But  what  do  you  insure  then  ? — Nothing  at 
all !  "  said  Margaritis.  "  For  my  part,  my  Banque 
Territoriale  was  based  upon — " 

"  Nothing  at  all,  monsieur  ? — "  cried  Gaudissart, 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  47 

interrupting  the  goodman.  "  Nothing  at  all  ? — and 
sickness,  and  anxieties,  and  poverty,  and  the  pas- 
sions ?  But  let  us  not  go  off  into  the  exceptional 
cases." 

"  No,  let  us  not  go  into  these  cases,"  said  the 
lunatic. 

"  What  results  from  this  enterprise  ?  "  resumed 
Gaudissart.  "  To  you,  a  banker,  I  will  define  the 
result  exactly.  A  man  exists,  he  has  a  future,  he  is 
in  good  standing,  he  lives  by  his  art,  he  has  need  of 
money,  he  asks  for  it — Nothing.  All  civilization  re- 
fuses money  to  this  man  who  by  his  mind  dominates 
all  civilization,  and  is  going  to  dominate  it  some  day 
by  his  brush,  by  his  chisel,  by  his  speech,  by  an 
idea,  by  a  system.  An  atrocious  civilization  !  it  has 
no  bread  for  its  great  men  who  give  it  its  luxury  ; 
it  nourishes  them  only  by  insults  and  derision,  this 
gilded  strumpet ! — The  expression  is  strong,  but  I  do 
not  retract  it.  This  unappreciated  great  man  then 
comes  to  us,  we  recognize  him  as  a  great  man,  we 
salute  him  with  respect,  we  listen  to  him  and  he 
says  to  us  :  '  Messieurs  of  the  insurance  upon  capi- 
tal, my  life  is  worth  so  much  ;  upon  my  productions 
I  will  give  you  so  much  per  cent ! '  Well,  what  do 
we  do  ?  Immediately,  without  jealousy,  we  admit 
him  to  the  superb  festival  of  civilization  as  a  most 
distinguished  guest — " 

"  You  need  some  wine,  then,"  said  the  lunatic. 

' ' — As  a  most  distinguished  guest.  He  signs  his  in- 
surance policy,  he  takes  our  rags  of  paper,  our  mis- 
erable  rags,   which,   vile  rags   as  they   are,   have 


48  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

nevertheless  more  power  in  them  than  has  his 
genius.  In  fact,  if  he  has  need  of  money,  every- 
body, at  sight  of  his  policy,  will  lend  him  money. 
At  the  Bourse,  at  the  bankers,  everywhere,  and 
even  with  the  usurers,  he  will  be  able  to  find  money 
because  he  offers  security.  Well,  monsieur,  is  this 
not  a  gap  to  be  filled  up  in  the  social  system  ?  But, 
monsieur,  this  is  only  a  part  of  the  operations  under- 
taken by  the  life  society.  We  insure  debtors  by 
means  of  another  system  of  premiums.  We  offer 
interest  during  life  at  a  rate  graduated  upon  the  age, 
on  a  scale  infinitely  more  advantageous  than  have  had 
up  to  the  present  the  tontines,  based  upon  mortality 
tables  that  are  now  recognized  as  false.  As  our 
society  operates  among  the  masses,  the  annuity 
holders  have  no  cause  to  dread  those  reflections 
which  sadden  their  old  days — already  so  sad  in  them- 
selves ;  reflections  which  necessarily  attend  them 
when  their  annuity  is  derived  from  an  individual. 
As  you  see,  monsieur,  with  us  life  has  been  com- 
puted in  all  its  aspects — " 

"  Sucked  at  both  ends,"  said  the  goodman  ;  "  but 
drink  a  glass  of  wine,  you  indeed  deserve  it.  It  will 
be  necessary  for  you  to  line  your  stomach  with  vel- 
vet, if  you  are  going  to  wag  your  jaw  comfortably. 
Monsieur,  the  wine  of  Vouvray,  well  preserved,  is  a 
real  velvet." 

"  What  do  you  think  of  all  that  ?  "  asked  Gaudis- 
sart,  emptying  his  glass. 

"  That  is  very  fine,  very  new,  very  useful ;  but  I 
like  better  the  discounts  on  the  territorial  properties 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  49 

which  were  made  at  my  Bank  in  the  Rue  des  Fosses- 
Montmartre." 

"You  are  very  right,  monsieur,"  replied  Gaudis- 
sart ;  "  but  that  has  been  done,  it  is  done  over,  it  is 
made  and  remade.  We  have  now  the  Mortgage 
Company  which  lends  money  on  landed  property 
and  redeems  it  on  a  large  scale.  But  is  not  that  a 
small  idea  in  comparison  with  that  of  solidifying 
hopes  !  solidifying  hopes,  coagulating  —  speaking 
financially — the  desires  for  fortune  of  each  one,  as- 
suring him  of  their  realization  !  For  this  it  has  re- 
quired our  epoch,  monsieur,  an  epoch  of  transition, 
of  transition  and  of  progress  all  at  one  time  !  " 

"  Yes,  of  progress,"  said  the  lunatic.  "  I  admire 
progress,  above  all,  that  which  is  for  the  vines 
favorable — im  bon  temps — " 

" Le  Temps!"  replied  Gaudissart,  without  hear- 
ing Margaritis's  phrase,  "  Le  Temps  y  monsieur,  a  bad 
newspaper !     If  you  read  it,  I  am  sorry  for  you — " 

"  The  newspaper  ?  "  said  Margaritis,  "  I  think  so 
indeed,  I  am  passionately  interested  in  newspapers. 
— Wife  !  wife  !  where  is  the  newspaper  ?  "  cried  he, 
turning  toward  the  chamber. 

"  Well,  monsieur,  if  you  are  interested  in  the 
papers,  we  are  bound  to  understand  each  other." 

"Yes,  but,  before  hearing  the  newspaper,  admit 
to  me  that  you  find  this  wine — " 

"  Delicious,"  said  Gaudissart. 

"  Well  then,  let  us  finish  the  bottle  between  us." 

The  lunatic  poured  two  fingers  of  wine  into  his 
own  glass  and  filled  Gaudissart's. 
4 


50  THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

"  Well,  monsieur,  I  have  two  casks  of  that  wine 
there.  If  you  find  it  good,  and  you  should  wish  to 
make  an  arrangement — " 

"Precisely,"  said  Gaudissart,  "the  Fathers  of 
the  Saint-Simonian  faith  have  requested  me  to  send 
to  them  the  commodities  which  I — But  shall  we 
speak  of  their  great  and  handsome  journal  ?  You 
who  comprehend  so  well  financial  affairs,  and  who 
will  give  me  your  assistance  to  make  them  succeed 
in  this  canton — " 

"Willingly,"  said  Margaritis,  "if—" 

"  I  understand,  if  I  take  your  wine.  But 
it  is  very  good,  your  wine,  monsieur,  it  is  inci- 
sive." 

"  They  make  champagne  from  it,  there  is  a  mon- 
sieur, a  Parisian,  who  has  come  to  make  it  here,  in 
Tours." 

"  I  believe  it,  monsieur.  Le  Globe,  of  which  you 
have  heard — " 

"  I  have  often  traversed  it,"  said  Margaritis. 

"  I  was  sure  of  it,"  said  Gaudissart.  "  Monsieur, 
you  have  a  strong  head,  a  head-piece  that  these 
messieurs  call  having  horse-sense  ; — there  is  some- 
thing of  the  horse  in  the  heads  of  all  great  men.  Now, 
one  may  well  be  a  fine  genius  and  live  unknown. 
This  is  a  farce  which  very  generally  comes  to  those 
who,  notwithstanding  their  abilities,  remain  in  ob- 
scurity, and  which  was  near  being  the  case  of  the 
great  Saint-Simon,  and  that  of  Monsieur  Vico,  an 
able  man  who  is  beginning  to  assert  himself.  He  is 
all   right,  Vico  !     I   am   well    satisfied.     Here,    we 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS   GAUDISSART  51 

enter  into  the  theory  and  the  new  formula  of 
humanity.     Attention,  monsieur — " 

"  Attention,"  said  the  lunatic. 

"  The  exploitation  of  man  by  man  should  have 
ceased,  monsieur,  on  the  day  on  which  Christ, — 
I  do  not  say  Jesus  Christ,  I  say  Christ, — came  to 
proclaim  the  equality  of  men  before  God.  But  this 
equality,  has  it  not  been,  up  to  the  present  time, 
the  most  deplorable  chimera  ?  Now,  Saint-Simon 
is  the  complement  of  Christ.  Christ  has  had  His 
day." 

"  He  is  then  liberated  ?  "  said  Margaritis. 

"  He  has  had  His  day,  like  Liberalism.  But  now 
there  is  something  stronger  before  us,  it  is  the  new 
faith,  it  is  the  production  free,  individual,  a  social 
coordination  which  requires  that  each  one  should  re- 
ceive equitably  his  social  salary  according  to  his 
work,  and  shall  not  be  exploited  by  the  individuals 
who,  without  any  capacity  themselves,  make  all 
labor  for  the  benefit  of  one  only  ;  hence  the  doc- 
trine—" 

"  What  will  you  do  with  the  servants  ?  "  asked 
Margaritis. 

"  They  will  remain  servants,  monsieur,  if  they 
have  the  capacity  only  to  be  servants." 

"  Well  then,  of  what  good  is  the  doctrine  ?  " 

"  Oh  !  to  judge  of  it,  monsieur,  it  is  necessary  to 
place  yourself  at  a  very  elevated  point  of  view  from 
which  you  can  embrace  clearly  a  general  aspect  of 
humanity.  Here,  we  enter  into  full  Ballanche  !  Do 
you  know  Monsieur  Ballanche  ?  " 


52  THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

"  We  do  nothing  else  but  that !  "  said  the  lunatic, 
who  understood  it  de  la  platiche — garden  plots  or 
beds. 

"Good,"  resumed  Gaudissart.  "Well,  if  the 
palingenetic  spectacle  of  the  successive  transforma- 
tions of  the  Globe  spiritualized  touches  you,  tran- 
sports you,  moves  you  !  well,  my  dear  monsieur, 
the  journal  Le  Globe,  a  good  name  which  expresses 
its  mission  clearly,  Le  Globe  is  the  cicerone  which 
will  expound  to  you  every  morning  the  new  condi- 
tions under  which  will  be  brought  about,  in  a  short 
space  of  time,  the  moral  and  political  transformation 
of  the  world." 

"  Quesaco  ?  "  said,  the  other. 

"I  will  make  you  comprehend  this  reasoning  by 
a  figure,"  replied  Gaudissart.  "  If,  when  we  were 
children,  our  nurses  have  taken  us  to  Seraphin's,  do 
we  not  require,  we  old  men,  pictures  of  the  future  ? 
These  messieurs — " 

"  Do  they  drink  wine  ?  " 

"Yes,  monsieur.  Their  house  is  established,  1 
may  well  say  it,  on  an  excellent  footing,  a  prophetic 
footing  ; — handsome  salons,  all  the  celebrities,  grand 
receptions." 

"Very  well,"  said  the  lunatic,  "the  workmen 
who  demolish  have  quite  as  much  need  of  wine  as 
those  who  build." 

"Still  greater  reason,  monsieur,  when  you  de- 
molish with  one  hand  and  reconstruct  with  the  other, 
as  do  the  apostles  of  the  Globe." 

"Then  they  need  wine,  wine  of  Vouvray,  the 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  53 

two  casks  which  I  have  left,  three  hundred  bottles, 
for  a  hundred  francs,  a  bagatelle." 

"  How  much  does  that  come  to  per  bottle  ?  "  said 
Gaudissart,  calculating.  "  Let  us  see  !  there  is  the 
transportation,  the  tax,  it  would  not  get  up  to  seven 
sous  ;  but  that  would  be  a  good  bargain.  They  pay 
more  for  all  other  wines. — Good,  I  have  my  man," 
said  Gaudissart  to  himself;  "you  want  to  sell  me 
wine  which  I  need,  I  am  going  to  get  the  best  of 
you. — Well,  monsieur,"  he  resumed,  "men  who 
dispute  are  on  the  point  of  coming  to  an  agreement. 
Let  us  speak  frankly,  you  have  a  great  influence  in 
this  canton  ?  " 

"I  think  so,"  said  the  lunatic.  "We  are  the 
head  of  Vouvray." 

"Well,  you  have  perfectly  comprehended  the 
business  of  intellectual  capitals  ?  " 

"  Perfectly." 

"  You  have  measured  the  whole  scope  of  the 
Globe  ? ' ' 

"  Twice — on  foot." 

Gaudissart  did  not  hear,  for  he  was  absorbed  in 
his  own  thoughts  and  listening  only  to  himself  as  to 
a  man  sure  to  triumph. 

"  Now,  with  regard  to  the  situation  in  which  you 
are  placed,  I  comprehend  that  you  have  nothing  to 
insure  at  the  age  to  which  you  have  arrived.  But, 
monsieur,  you  can  induce  others  to  insure,  persons 
who,  in  the  canton,  either  because  of  their  personal 
value  or  because  of  the  precarious  position  of  their 
families,  would  wish  to  establish  a  capital  for  them- 


54  THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

selves.  Then,  by  subscribing  to  the  Globe,  by  sup- 
porting me  with  your  authority  in  the  canton  for  the 
investments  in  annuities  for  life,  for  they  are  fond 
of  life  annuities  in  the  provinces  ;  well,  we  can  come 
to  an  understanding  about  the  two  casks  of  wine. 
Will  you  take  the  Globe  ?  " 

"  I  go  on  the  globe." 

"  Will  you  give  me  your  support  with  influential 
persons  in  the  canton  ?  " 

"  I  will  support — " 

"  And—" 

"And—" 

"  And  I —    But  you  will  subscribe  to  the  Globe  ?  " 

" Le  Globe,  a  good  journal,"  said  the  lunatic,  "a 
journal  for  life." 

"  For  life,  monsieur  ? —  Ah,  yes,  you  are  right, 
it  is  full  of  life,  of  strength,  of  science,  stuffed  with 
science,  in  fine  condition,  well  printed,  good  dye,  a 
fine  nap.  Ah  !  it  is  not  rubbish,  trifles,  glittering 
stuff,  silk  which  tears  when  you  look  at  it ;  it  is 
deep,  it  contains  arguments  on  which  you  can 
meditate  at  your  ease  and  which  will  make  the 
time  pass  very  agreeably  in  the  depths  of  the 
country." 

"  That  suits  me,"  replied  the  lunatic. 

"  Le  Globe  costs  a  bagatelle,  eighty  francs." 

"  That  does  not  suit  me,"  said  the  goodman. 

"  Monsieur,"  said  Gaudissart,  "you  have  neces- 
sarily some  little  children." 

"  Very  much,"  replied  Margaritis,  who  had  un- 
derstood you  love  for  you  have. 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  55 

"  Well,  the  Journal  des  Enfants,  seven  francs  a 
year." 

"  Take  my  two  casks  of  wine,  I  will  take  a  sub- 
scription for  children,  that  suits  me,  a  fine  idea. 
Intellectual  development,  the  child  ? —  is  not  that 
man  upon  man,  do  you  see  ?  " 

"  You  have  hit  it,  monsieur,"  said  Gaudissart. 

"I've  hit  it." 

"  You  consent  then  to  pilot  me  through  the  can- 
ton ?  " 

"  Through  the  canton." 

"  I  have  your  approbation  ?  " 

"You  have  it." 

"  Well,  monsieur,  I  will  take  your  two  casks  of 
wine  at  a  hundred  francs — " 

"  No,  no,  a  hundred  and  ten." 

"Monsieur,  a  hundred  and  ten  francs,  so  be  it, 
but  a  hundred  and  ten  for  the  intellects  of  the  doc- 
trine, and  a  hundred  francs  for  me.  I  make  a  sale 
for  you,  you  owe  me  a  commission." 

"  Charge  it  to  them  at  a  hundred  and  twenty — 
centvingt — {sans  vin — no  wine)." 

"  That  is  a  good  pun.  It  is  not  only  very  strong, 
but  also  very  spiritual." 

"  No,  spirituous,  monsieur." 

"  Better  and  better,  just  like  at  Nicolet's." 

"  I  am  like  that,"  said  the  lunatic.  "  Come  and 
see  my  close  !  " 

"Willingly,"  said  Gaudissart;  "that  wine  is 
singularly  heady." 

And  the    illustrious   Gaudissart    went  out    with 


56  THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

Monsieur  Margaritis,  who  promenaded  him  from 
one  new  vine  sprig  to  another,  from  plant  to  plant, 
among  his  vines.  The  three  ladies  and  Monsieur 
Vernier  could  then  laugh  at  their  ease,  while  watch- 
ing in  the  distance  the  drummer  and  the  lunatic, 
discussing,  gesticulating,  stopping,  continuing  their 
walk,  talking  with  heat. 

"  Why  has  the  goodman  taken  him  away  from 
us  ?  "  said  Vernier. 

Finally  Margaritis  came  back  with  the  commercial 
traveller,  both  of  them  walking  with  an  accelerated 
step,  like  men  in  a  hurry  to  terminate  a  business. 

"  The  goodman  has,  by  Jove  !  got  the  best  of  the 
Parisian  ! — "  said  Monsieur  Vernier. 

And,  in  fact,  the  illjustrious  Gaudissart  wrote  out, 
on  the  end  of  a  card  table,  and  to  the  great  joy  of 
the  goodman,  an  order  for  the  delivery  of  the  two 
casks  of  wine.  Then,  after  having  read  the  drum- 
mer's agreement,  Monsieur  Margaritis  gave  him 
seven  francs  for  a  subscription  to  the  Journal  des 
Enfants. 

"  Till  to-morrow,  then,  monsieur,"  said  the  illus- 
trious Gaudissart,  turning  the  key  of  his  watch, 
"  1  shall  have  the  honor  of  coming  for  you  to-mor- 
row. You  may  send  the  wine  directly  to  Paris,  to 
the  address  indicated,  and  you  will  receive  a  remit- 
tance." 

Gaudissart  was  a  Norman,  and  there  was  never 
any  engagement  for  him  that  was  not  two-sided, — 
he  wanted  an  agreement  from  Monsieur  Margaritis 
who,  content  as  is  a  lunatic  who  has  gratified  his 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  57 

favorite  wish,  signed,  not  without  reading,  a  con- 
tract to  deliver  two  casks  of  wine  of  the  close  Mar- 
garitis.  And  the  illustrious  Gaudissart  went  away 
skipping,  humming  Le  roi  des  mers  net'echapperapas  ! 
to  the  inn  of  the  Soldi  d'or,  where  he  conversed 
naturally  with  the  host  while  waiting  for  dinner. 
Mitouflet  was  an  old  soldier  ingenuously  shrewd,  as 
are  the  peasants,  but  who  never  laughed  at  a  jest, 
like  a  man  accustomed  to  the  sound  of  cannon  and 
to  jesting  under  arms. 

"  You  have  some  pretty  able  people  about  here," 
said  Gaudissart  to  him,  leaning  against  the  door 
post  and  lighting  his  cigar  at  Mitouflet's  pipe. 

"  How  do  you  mean  ?  "  asked  Mitouflet. 

"  Why,  people  very  strongly  set  in  their  political 
and  financial  ideas." 

"From  whose  house  have  you  come  then,  if  we 
may  ask  without  indiscretion  ?  "  asked  the  inn- 
keeper ingenuously,  skilfully  and  periodically  ex- 
pectorating between  his  lips,  after  the  manner  of 
smokers. 

"  From  that  of  a  coney  named  Margaritis." 

Mitouflet  threw  upon  his  customer  two  glances  of 
chilling  irony. 

"  That  is  true  enough,  the  goodman  knows  what 
is  what !  He  knows  too  much  for  other  people, 
they  cannot  always  understand  him." 

"  I  can  believe  it,  he  understands  thoroughly  well 
the  abstruse  questions  of  finance." 

"  Yes,"  said  the  inn-keeper.  "  Therefore,  for  my 
part,  I  have  always  regretted  that  he  was  crazy." 


58  THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

"What,  crazy  ?" 

"  Crazy,  as  one  is  crazy,  when  one  is  crazy,"  re- 
peated Mitouflet ;  "  but  he  is  not  dangerous,  and  his 
wife  takes  care  of  him.  You  came  to  an  under- 
standing, then  ?  "  continued,  with  the  greatest  cool- 
ness, the  pitiless  Mitouflet.     "  That  is  droll." 

"Droll!"  cried  Gaudissart ;  "droll!  but  your 
Monsieur  Vernier  has  then  been  making  fun  of 
me  ?  " 

"  He  sent  you  there  ?  "  asked  Mitouflet. 

"Yes." 

"  Wife,  wife,"  cried  the  inn-keeper,  "  listen  here. 
What  has  Monsieur  Vernier  done  but  sent  monsieur 
to  the  goodman  Margaritis  ? —  " 

"  And  what  then  ■could  you  say  to  each  other, 
you  two,  my  dear  little  monsieur,"  asked  the  wife, 
"  since  he  is  crazy  ?  " 

"  He  sold  me  two  casks  of  wine." 

"  And  you  bought  them  ?  " 

"Yes." 

"  But  that  is  his  mania,  to  sell  wine, — he  has 
none." 

"  Good  !  "  said  the  drummer.  "  I  will  go,  in  the 
first  place,  to  thank  Monsieur  Vernier." 

And  Gaudissart,  boiling  with  anger,  rushed  off  to 
the  house  of  the  ex-dyer,  whom  he  found  in  his  hall, 
laughing  with  the  neighbors  to  whom  he  was  al- 
ready relating  the  story. 

"  Monsieur,"  said  the  prince  of  travellers,  throw- 
ing upon  him  fiery  glances,  "  you  are  a  rogue  and 
a  blackguard,  who,  under  penalty  of  being  the  worst 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  59 

of  convict-keepers,  men  whom  I  consider  lower  than 
the  wretches  under  them,  owe  me  reparation  for  the 
insult  which  you  have  put  upon  me  by  putting  me 
in  communication  with  a  man  whom  you  knew  to  be 
crazy.  Do  you  hear  me,  Monsieur  Vernier,  thedyer?" 

Such  was  the  harangue  which  Gaudissart  had 
prepared,  like  a  tragedian  ready  for  his  entrance  on 
the  scene. 

"What!"  replied  Vernier,  animated  by  the 
presence  of  his  neighbors,  "  do  you  think  that  we 
have  not  the  right  to  make  fun  of  a  monsieur  who 
disembarks  in  great  state  in  Vouvray  to  demand  of 
us  our  funds,  under  the  pretext  that  we  are  great 
men,  painters,  poetasters ;  and  who  thus  gratui- 
tously assimilates  us  with  people  without  a  sou, 
without  character,  without  hearth  or  lodging ! 
What  have  we  done  to  deserve  that,  we,  fathers  of 
families  ?  A  rogue  who  comes  to  propose  to  us  to 
subscribe  to  Le  Globe,  a  journal  which  preaches  a 
religion  in  which  the  first  commandment  of  God 
orders,  if  you  please,  that  you  shall  not  inherit  from 
your  father  and  your  mother !  Upon  my  sacred 
word  of  honor,  the  Pere  Margaritis  says  more  sensi- 
ble things.  Moreover,  of  what  are  you  complaining? 
You  came  to  a  perfect  understanding,  you  two,  mon- 
sieur. These  messieurs  can  bear  you  witness  that 
if  you  had  talked  to  all  the  people  in  the  canton, 
you  would  not  have  been  so  well  understood." 

"  All  that  may  seem  excellent  to  you  to  say,  but 
I  consider  myself  insulted,  monsieur,  and  you  will 
give  me  reparation." 


60  THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

"  Well,  monsieur,  I  consider  you  insulted,  if  that 
is  agreeable  to  you,  and  I  will  not  give  you  repara- 
tion, for  there  is  not  enough  reparation  in  this  affair 
for  me  to  give  you  any.     What  a  buffoon  he  is  !  " 

At  this  word,  Gaudissart  threw  himself  upon  the 
dyer  to  cuff  his  ears ;  but  the  watchful  Vouvrillons 
threw  themselves  between  them,  and  the  illustrious 
Gaudissart  cuffed  only  the  dyer's  wig,  which  fell 
upon  the  head  of  Mademoiselle  Claire  Vernier. 

"  If  you  are  not  satisfied,"  said  he,  "  monsieur,  I 
shall  remain  until  to-morrow  at  the  hotel  of  the 
Soleil  d'Or ;  you  will  find  me  there,  ready  to  explain 
to  you  what  is  meant  by  giving  reparation  for  an 
offence  !     I  fought  in  July,  monsieur." 

"Well,  you  will  'fight  in  Vouvray,"  replied  the 
dyer,  "  and  you  will  remain  here  longer  than  you 
think." 

Gaudissart  went  away,  ruminating  upon  this 
reply,  which  he  found  full  of  evil  omen.  For  the 
first  time  in  his  life,  the  drummer  did  not  dine  joy- 
ously. The  bourg  of  Vouvray  was  thrown  into 
emotion  by  the  adventure  of  Gaudissart  and  of  Mon- 
sieur Vernier.  There  had  never  been  a  question  of 
a  duel  in  that  benign  country. 

"  Monsieur  Mitouflet,  I  must  fight  to-morrow  with 
Monsieur  Vernier ;  I  do  not  know  anyone  here,  will 
you  serve  as  my  second  ?  "  said  Gaudissart  to  his 
host. 

"Willingly,"  replied  the  innkeeper. 

Scarcely  had  Gaudissart  finished  his  dinner,  when 
Madame    Fontanieu    and    the    assistant-mayor    of 


VERNIER    TO    G A  [/DISS ART 


"  Will,  monsieur,  I  consider  yon  insulted,  if  that  is 
agreeable  to  you,  and  I  will  not  give  you  reparation, 
for  there  is  not  enough  reparation  in  this  off  air  for 
me  to  give  you  any.      What  a  buffoon  he  is  !  " 

At  this  word,  Gaudissart  threw  himself  upon  the 
dyer  to  cuff  his  ears. 


THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  6l 

Vouvray  came  to  the  Soleil  d'or,  took  Mitouflet  to 
one  side  and  represented  to  him  how  afflicting  to  the 
canton  it  would  be  if  there  should  take  place  in  it  a 
violent  death  :  they  depicted  to  him  the  lamentable 
situation  of  the  good  Madame  Vernier,  and  entreated 
him  to  arrange  this  affair  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
save  the  honor  of  the  country. 

"I  will  take  charge  of  it,"  said  the  sly  inn- 
keeper. 

In  the  evening,  Mitouflet  sent  up  to  the  drummer's 
room  pens,  ink  and  paper. 

"  What  are  you  bringing  me  there  ?  "  asked 
Gaudissart. 

"But  you  are  going  to  fight  to-morrow,"  said 
Mitouflet,  "  I  thought  that  you  would  like  to  make 
some  little  disposition  of  your  affairs,  in  short,  that 
you  might  have  something  to  write,  for  there  are 
beings  who  are  dear  to  us.  Oh  !  that  will  not  kill 
you.  Are  you  skilful  with  arms  ?  would  you  like 
to  practise  your  hand  ?     I  have  some  foils." 

"Yes,  willingly." 

Mitouflet  returned  with  some  foils  and  two  masks. 

"  Now  let  us  see  !  " 

The  host  and  the  drummer  both  placed  themselves 
on  guard.  Mitouflet,  as  a  former  provost  of  grena- 
diers, pinked  Gaudissart  sixty-eight  times  in  succes- 
sion, jostling  him  and  backing  him  up  against  the 
wall. 

"  The  devil !  you  are  strong  at  it,"  said  Gaudis- 
sart,. out  of  breath. 

"  Monsieur  Vernier  is  stronger  than  I  am." 


62  THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

"  The  devil !  the  devil !  I  will  then  fight  with 
pistols." 

"  1  would  advise  you  to  do  so,  because,  you  see, 
by  taking  the  great  holster  pistols  and  loading  them 
up  to  the  muzzles,  there  is  never  any  risk,  the 
pistols  scatter,  and  each  one  retires  with  his  honor 
satisfied.  Let  me  arrange  that!  Hem!  sapristi! 
two  brave  men  would  be  very  stupid  to  kill  each 
other  for  a  gesture." 

"  Are  you  sure  that  the  pistols  will  scatter  suffi- 
ciently ?  I  should  be  vexed  to  kill  that  man,  after 
all,"  said  Gaudissart. 

"  You  can  sleep  in  peace." 

The  next  morning,  the  two  adversaries,  a  little 
pallid,  met  below  the  bridge  of  La  Cise.  The 
brave  Vernier  all  but  killed  a  cow  that  was  passing 
at  ten  paces  from  him,  on  the  edge  of  the  road. 

"  Ah  !  you  fired  in  the  air,"  cried  Gaudissart. 

At  these  words,  the  two  enemies  embraced  each 
other. 

"Monsieur,"  said  the  drummer,  "your  jest  was 
a  little  strong,  but  it  was  humorous.  I  am  grieved 
to  have  addressed  you  as  I  did,  I  was  beside  myself ; 
I  consider  you  a  man  of  honor." 

"  Monsieur,  we  will  give  you  twenty  subscriptions 
to  the  Journal  des  Enfants,"  replied  the  dyer,  who 
was  still  pale. 

"  That  being  so,"  said  Gaudissart,  "  why  should 
we  not  take  dejeuner  together  ?  Are  not  men  who 
fight  each  other,  on  the  point  of  understanding  each 
other  ?  " 


THE  ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART  63 

"Monsieur  Mitouflet,"  said  Gaudissart,  on  re- 
turning to  the  hotel,  "  you  should  have  a  bailiff 
here?" 

"Why?" 

"  Eh  !  I  am  going  to  send  a  summons  to  my  dear 
little  Monsieur  Margaritis,  that  he  may  furnish  me 
with  two  casks  of  his  close." 

"  But  he  hasn't  them,"  said  Vernier. 

"  Well,  monsieur,  the  affair  can  be  arranged  for 
twenty  francs  of  indemnity.  I  do  not  wish  that  it 
should  be  said  that  your  bourg  has  pulled  the  wool 
over  the  illustrious  Gaudissart." 

Madame  Margaritis,  frightened  at  the  prospect  of 
a  suit  in  which  the  plaintiff  could  show  a  good  cause, 
brought  the  twenty  francs  to  the  merciful  drummer, 
who  was  spared,  moreover,  the  trouble  of  doing 
business  in  one  of  the  most  joyous  cantons  of 
France,  but  one  of  the  most  recalcitrant  to  new 
ideas. 

On  his  return  from  the  southern  countries,  the 
illustrious  Gaudissart  occupied  the  first  place  on  the 
coupe  of  the  diligence  of  Laffitteand  Caillard,  where 
he  had  for  neighbor  a  young  man  to  whom  he  had 
been  deigning,  since  they  left  Angouleme,  to  explain 
the  mysteries  of  life,  taking  him  doubtless  for  a 
child. 

When  they  arrived  at  Vouvray,  the  young  man 
cried  : 

"  There  is  a  beautiful  site  !  " 

"Yes,  monsieur,"  said  Gaudissart,  "but  the 
country  is  not  bearable,  because  of  the  inhabitants. 


64  THE   ILLUSTRIOUS  GAUDISSART 

You  would  have  there  a  duel  every  day.  Yes, 
just  three  months  ago  I  fought  one  there,"  said  he, 
pointing  to  the  bridge  of  La  Cise,  "with  pistols, 
with  a  cursed  dyer ;  but — I  downed  him! — " 

Paris,  November,  1837. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 


TO  MONSIEUR  IE  COMTE  FERDINAND   DE  GRAMONT 

My  dear  Ferdinand,  if  the  chances  (habent  sua  fata  libelli) 
of  the  world  of  literature  should  make  of  these  lines  a  long 
souvenir,  it  would  certainly  be  but  a  small  thing  in  comparison 
with  the  trouble  which  you  have  taken,  you  the  D'Hozier, 
the  Cherin,  the  king-at-arms  of  the  ETUDE  DE  MOEURS ; 
you  to  whom  the  Navarreins,  the  Cadignans,  the  Langeaises, 
the  Blamont-Chauvrys,  the  Chaulieus,  the  D'Arthezs,  the 
D'Esgrignons,  the  Mortsaufs,  the  Valoises,  the  hundred  noble 
houses  which  constitute  the  aristocracy  of  the  COMEDIE  HU- 
MAINE  owe  their  fine  devices  and  their  so  admirable  coats  of 
arms.  Thus  THE  HERALDRY  OF  THE  STUDIES  OF  MANNERS 

and  Customs,  invented  by  Ferdinand  de  Gramont, 
GENTLEMAN,  is  a  complete  history  of  French  blazonry,  in 
which  you  have  forgotten  nothing,  not  even  the  arms  of  the  Em- 
pire, and  which  1  shall  preserve  as  a  monument  of  Benedictine- 
like patience  and  of  friendship.  What  a  familiarity  with  the  old 
feudal  language  in  the  Pulchre  sedens,  melius  agens !  of  the 
Beauseants!  in  the  Des  partem  leonis !  of  the  D'Espards  !  in 
the  Ne  se  vend  !  of  the  Vandenesses  !  In  short,  what  ingenious 
artifice  in  the  thousand  details  of  this  learned  iconography 
which  serves  to  demonstrate  to  what  lengths  fidelity  may  be 
carried  in  my  understanding,  in  which,  you,  poet,  have  wished 
to  aid 

Your  old  friend, 

DE  BALZAC. 


-Vv'-v//:./  ,,.,.. 


WHEN  MADAME  DE  LA   BAUDRAYE 
ENTERTAINS 


When  his  wife  brought  up  the  question  of  the 
slave-trade,  or  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of 
the  convicts,  he  took  his  little  blue  cap  and  went  out 
without  any  noise,  with  the  certainty  that  he  could 
go  to  Saint-Thibault  to  inspect  a  delivery  of  punch- 
eons and  return  an  hour  later  to  find  the  discussion 
fully  developed. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 


On  the  border  of  the  province  of  Berri  may  be 
found,  on  the  banks  of  the  Loire,  a  town  which  by 
its  situation  invariably  attracts  the  eye  of  the  trav- 
eller. Sancerre  occupies  the  culminating  point  of  a 
chain  of  small  mountains,  the  last  undulations  of  the 
soil  of  the  Nivernais.  The  Loire  overflows  the  lands 
at  the  foot  of  these  hills,  leaving  on  them  a  yellow 
slime  which  fertilizes  them,  when  it  does  not  cover 
them  with  sand  forever  by  one  of  those  terrible 
floods  which  are  equally  common  with  the  Vistula, 
that  Loire  of  the  North.  The  mountain,  on  the  sum- 
mit of  which  are  grouped  the  houses  of  Sancerre, 
rises  to  a  sufficient  distance  above  the  river  to  enable 
the  little  port  of  Saint-Thibault  to  make  a  livingfrom 
the  life  of  Sancerre.  There  the  wines  are  shipped, 
there  the  staves  are  unloaded,  in  short,  all  the  pro- 
ductions of  the  upper  and  lower  Loire. 

At  the  period  of  this  history,  the  bridge  of  Cosne 
and  that  of  Saint-Thibault,  two  chain  bridges,  were 
constructed.     Travellers  coming  from  Paris  to  San- 

(69) 


70  THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

cerre  by  the  route  to  Italy  no  longer  crossed  the 
Loire  from  Cosne  to  Saint-Thibault  by  a  ferry  ;  is 
not  that  enough  to  say  to  you  that  the  chasse-croisi 
of  1830  had  taken  place  ?  for  the  house  of  Orleans 
has  everywhere  developed  material  interests,  but 
somewhat  after  the  manner  of  those  husbands  who 
make  presents  to  their  wives  with  the  money  of  the 
dot. 

Excepting  in  that  portion  of  Sancerre  which  occu- 
pies the  plateau,  the  streets  are  more  or  less  steep, 
and  the  town  is  surrounded  by  slopes  called  the 
Great  Ramparts,  a  name  which  indicates  with  suffi- 
cient clearness  the  character  of  the  great  roads 
of  the  town.  Beyond  these  ramparts  extends  a 
girdle  of  vineyards.  «  The  making  of  wine  forms  the 
principal  industry  and  the  most  considerable  com- 
merce of  the  country,  which  possesses  several 
growths  of  generous  wines,  with  a  good  bouquet, 
similar  enough  to  the  products  of  Burgundy  to  de- 
ceive the  common  palates  in  Paris.  Sancerre  there- 
fore finds  a  rapid  demand  in  the  Parisian  cabarets, 
one  sufficiently  necessary,  moreover,  for  wines  that 
cannot  be  kept  more  than  seven  or  eight  years. 
Below  the  town  are  seated  a  few  villages,  Fontenay, 
Saint-Satur,  which  resemble  suburbs,  and  the  situa- 
tion of  which  recalls  the  gay  vineyards  of  Neuchatel 
in  Switzerland.  The  town  has  preserved  some 
features  of  its  ancient  physiognomy,  its  streets  are 
narrow  and  paved  with  pebbles  taken  from  the  bed 
of  the  Loire.  There  are  still  to  be  seen  in  it  old 
houses.     The  tower,  that  remnant  of  the  military 


THE   MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  7 1 

strength  and  of  the  feudal  epoch,  recalls  one  of  the 
mostterrible  sieges  of  our  religious  wars,  during  which 
our  Calvinists  surpassed  indeed  the  ferocious  Came- 
ronians  of  Walter  Scott.  The  town  of  Sancerre, 
rich  with  an  illustrious  past,  shorn  of  its  military 
power,  is  in  some  sort  devoted  to  an  unfruitful  future, 
for  the  commercial  movement  of  the  day  follows  the 
right  bank  of  the  Loire.  This  rapid  description 
which  you  have  just  read  demonstrates  that  the 
isolation  of  Sancerre  will  go  on  increasing,  notwith- 
standing the  two  bridges  which  unite  it  to  Cosne. 
Sancerre,  the  pride  of  the  left  bank,  has  at  the  most 
three  thousand,  five  hundred  souls,  whilst  in  Cosne 
there  are  to-day  more  than  six  thousand.  Within 
the  last  half-century,  the  character  of  these  two 
towns  seated  facing  each  other  has  completely 
changed.  Nevertheless,  the  advantages  of  the 
natural  situation  are  on  the  side  of  the  historic  town, 
where,  in  every  direction,  an  enchanting  spectacle 
may  be  enjoyed,  where  the  air  is  of  an  admirable 
purity,  the  vegetation  magnificent,  and  where  the 
inhabitants,  in  harmony  with  this  smiling  nature, 
are  affable,  good  companions,  and  without  any 
Puritanism,  although  two-thirds  of  the  population 
have  remained  Calvinists.  In  such  a  condition  of 
environment,  if  the  inconveniences  of  the  life  in  little 
towns  are  to  be  experienced,  if  you  find  yourself 
under  the  sway  of  that  officious  surveillance  which 
makes  of  private  life  a  life  almost  public, — in  re- 
venge, local  patriotism,  which  will  never  replace  the 
family  spirit,  is  displayed  in  a  high  degree.     Thus 


72  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

the  town  of  Sancerre  is  very  proud  of  having  given 
birth  to  one  of  the  glories  of  the  modern  science 
of  medicine,  Horace  Bianchon,  and  to  an  author 
of  the  second  rank,  Etienne  Lousteau,  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  feuilletonists.  The  arron- 
dissement  of  Sancerre,  indignant  to  find  itself 
in  submission  to  seven  or  eight  great  landed  pro- 
prietors, the  haughty  barons  of  the  elections,  en- 
deavored to  shake  off  the  electoral  yoke  of  the  par- 
ticular doctrine  which  made  of  it  its  rotten  borough. 
This  conspiracy  of  offended  self-loves  was  ship- 
wrecked by  the  jealousy  caused  among  the  confed- 
erates by  the  prospect  of  the  future  elevation  of  one 
of  the  conspirators.  When  the  result  had  demon- 
strated the  radical  fault  of  the  enterprise,  it  was 
desired  to  remedy  it  by  selecting  for  the  champion 
of  the  country  at  the  coming  elections  one  of  the  two 
men  who  represent  Sancerre  so  gloriously  in  Paris. 
This  idea  was  an  extremely  advanced  one  for  the 
provinces,  where,  since  1830,  the  nomination  of 
parish  notabilities  has  made  such  progress  that 
statesmen  become  more  and  more  rare  in  the  elective 
Chamber.  Moreover,  this  project,  the  realization  of 
which  was  sufficiently  doubtful,  was  conceived  by 
the  superior  woman  of  the  arrondissement,  dux 
femina  facti,  but  with  considerations  for  her  own  per- 
sonal interests.  This  conception  had  so  many  roots 
in  this  woman's  past  and  included  so  nearly  her 
whole  future,  that,  without  a  lively  and  succinct  de- 
scription of  her  previous  life,  it  would  be  difficult  of 
comprehension.     Sancerre,   then,    was   proud   of  a 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  73 

superior  woman,  long  misunderstood,  but  who, 
about  1836,  was  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  sufficiently 
pretty  departmental  renown.  This  epoch  was  also 
that  in  which  the  names  of  the  two  Sancerrois  at- 
tained at  Paris,  each  in  his  own  sphere,  to  the 
highest  degree,  one  of  glory,  the  other  of  the 
fashion.  Etienne  Lousteau,  one  of  the  collaborators 
of  the  reviews,  put  his  name  to  the  feuilleton  of  a 
journal  with  eight  thousand  subscribers  ;  and  Bian- 
chon,  already  first  physician  in  a  hospital,  officer  of 
the  Legion  of  Honor  and  member  of  the  Academy  of 
Sciences,  had  just  obtained  his  professor's  chair.  If 
this  statement  should  not,  for  many  people,  carry 
with  it  a  species  of  blame,  it  might  be  said  that 
George  Sand  had  created  the  Sandism,  so  true  is  it, 
morally  speaking,  that  good  is  nearly  always  accom- 
panied by  evil.  This  sentimental  leprosy  has 
spoiled  a  great  many  women,  who,  without  their 
pretensions  to  genius,  would  have  been  charming. 
Sandism  has,  however,  this  of  good  in  it,  that  the 
woman  who  is  attacked  by  it,  carrying  her  pre- 
tended superiorities  to  the  support  of  uncomprehend- 
ed  sentiments,  is  in  some  sort  the  blue  stocking  of 
the  heart ; — there  then  results  from  this  less  weari- 
ness, love  somewhat  neutralizing  literature.  Now, 
the  example  of  George  Sand  has  had  for  its  principal 
effect  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  France  pos- 
sesses an  exorbitant  number  of  superior  women, 
sufficiently  generous  to  leave,  up  to  the  present 
time,  the  field  open  to  the  granddaughter  of  Marshal 
Saxe.     The  superior  woman  of  Sancerre  lived  at  La 


74  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

Baudraye,  city  house  and  country  house  at  once,  sit- 
uated at  ten  minutes'  distance  from  the  city,  in  the 
village,  or,  if  you  prefer,  in  the  faubourg  of  Saint- 
Satur.  The  La  Baudrayes  of  to-day,  as  has  hap- 
pened to  many  noble  houses,  have  substituted  them- 
selves for  the  La  Baudrayes  whose  name  shone  in 
the  annals  of  the  Crusades  and  is  mingled  with  the 
great  events  of  the  history  of  Berri.  This  requires 
an  explanation. 

In  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  a  certain  eschevin 
named  Milaud,  whose  ancestors  had  been  bigoted 
Calvinists,  became  converted  at  the  time  of  the  Rev- 
ocation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  In  order  to  encour- 
age this  movement  in  what  was  then  one  of  the  sanctu- 
aries of  Calvinism,  'the  king  appointed  this  Milaud 
to  an  important  post  in  the  department  of  Forests 
and  Streams,  gave  him  the  arms  and  the  title  of  Sire 
de  la  Baudraye  by  presenting  him  with  the  fief  of 
the  ancient  and  real  Baudrayes.  The  heirs  of  the 
famous  Captain  La  Baudraye  fell,  alas  !  into  one  of 
the  traps  set  for  the  heretics  by  the  royal  ordinances 
and  were  hanged,  a  treatment  unworthy  of  the 
Grand  Roi.  Under  Louis  XV.,  Milaud  de  la  Bau- 
draye, from  simple  squire  became  a  knight,  and  en- 
joyed sufficient  consideration  to  place  his  son  as  a 
cornet  in  the  Musketeers.  The  cornet  died  at  Fon- 
tenoi,  leaving  a  son  to  whom  the  king  Louis  XVI.  later 
gave  a  commission  as  Farmer-General  in  memory  of 
this  cornet  killed  on  the  field  of  battle.  This  finan- 
cier, a  fine  wit,  occupying  himself  with  charades, 
with   bouts-crimes,    with   sonnets    to   Chloris,  lived 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  75 

in  the  fashionable  world,  frequented  the  society  of 
the  Due  de  Nivernois,  and  thought  himself  obliged 
to  follow  the  nobility  into  exile  ;  but  he  took  care  to 
carry  his  capital  with  him.  The  rich  emigre  was 
thus  enabled  to  sustain  more  than  one  noble  house. 
Wearied  with  hoping,  and  perhaps  with  lending,  he 
returned  to  Sancerre  in  1800,  and  repurchased  La 
Baudraye  through  a  sentiment  of  self-love  and  of 
aristocratic  pride  explicable  in  a  grandson  of  the 
eschevin,  but  who,  under  the  Consulate,  had  so  much 
less  of  a  future  that  the  ex-Farmer-General  was  able 
to  reckon  but  little  upon  the  prospects  of  his  heir 
continuing  the  line  of  the  new  La  Baudrayes.  Jean- 
Athanase-Polydore  Milaud  de  la  Baudraye,  the  only 
child  of  the  financier,  more  than  puny  at  birth,  was 
indeed  the  offspring  of  a  blood  early  exhausted  by 
the  exaggerated  pleasures  to  which  the  wealthy 
classes  abandon  themselves  when  they  marry  in  the 
morning  of  a  premature  old  age — and  end  thus  by 
bringing  down  all  the  summits  of  society.  During 
the  exile,  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  a  young  girl 
without  fortune,  who  had  been  married  because 
of  her  nobility,  had  had  the  patience  to  bring  up  this 
yellow  and  sickly  infant,  on  which  she  lavished  that 
excessive  love  which  mothers  have  in  their  hearts  for 
abortions.  The  death  of  this  mother,  a  Demoiselle 
de  Casteran  la  Tour,  contributed  greatly  to  the 
return  to  France  of  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye.  This 
Lucullus  of  the  Milauds  died,  leaving  to  his  son 
the  fief  without  the  right  of  dues  on  sales  of  in- 
heritance,    but     ornamented     with     weathercocks 


76  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

bearing  his  arms,  a  thousand  golden  louis,  a 
sum  of  considerable  importance  in  1802,  and  his 
receipts  for  money  lent  to  the  most  illustrious 
emigres,  contained  in  the  portfolio  of  his  poesies, 
with  this  inscription  :  Vanitas  vanitatum  et  omnia 
vanitas!  If  the  young  La  Baudraye  succeeded  in 
living,  he  owed  it  to  habits  of  a  monastic  regularity, 
to  that  economy  of  movement  which  Fontenelle 
preached  as  the  religion  of  the  valetudinarians,  and 
above  all,  to  the  air  of  Sancerre,  to  the  influence  of 
that  admirable  site  from  which  might  be  seen  a  pan- 
orama of  forty  leagues  in  the  valley  of  the  Loire. 
From  1802  to  181 5  the  little  La  Baudraye  augmented 
his  ex-fief  by  the  addition  of  several  fields  and  de- 
voted much  attention  \o  the  culture  of  the  vine.  In 
its  early  days,  the  Restoration  appeared  to  him  to  be 
so  tottering  on  its  legs  that  he  did  not  dare  to  go  up 
to  Paris  too  often  to  put  in  his  claims  ;  but,  after 
the  death  of  Napoleon,  he  endeavored  to  convert 
into  money  his  father's  poesy,  for  he  did  not  com- 
prehend the  profound  philosophy  indicated  by  this 
mixture  of  credits  and  charades.  The  wine-grower 
lost  so  much  time  in  getting  himself  recognized  by 
Messieurs  the  Dues  de  Navarreins  and  others — to  use 
his  own  expression — that  he  returned  to  Sancerre, 
recalled  by  his  dear  vintages,  without  having  ob- 
tained anything  more  than  offers  of  service.  The 
Restoration  conferred  so  much  lustre  upon  the  nobil- 
ity that  La  Baudraye  desired  to  give  an  object  to  his 
ambition  by  giving  himself  an  heir.  This  conjugal 
benefit  appeared  to  him  sufficiently  problematical ; 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  77 

otherwise,  he  would  not  have  delayed  so  long  ;  but, 
toward  the  end  of  the  year  1823,  finding  himself  still 
on  his  legs  at  forty-three,  an  age  which  no  physi- 
cian, no  astrologer,  no  midwife,  would  have  dared 
to  predict  for  him,  he  conceived  hopes  of  finding  the 
reward  for  his  compulsory  virtue.  Nevertheless, 
his  choice  indicated  so  great  a  default  of  prudence, 
considering  his  sickly  condition,  that  it  was  impossi- 
ble for  provincial  malice  not  to  see  in  it  a  profound 
calculation. 

At  this  period,  His  Eminence  Monseigneur  the 
Archbishop  of  Bourges  had  just  converted  to  Cathol- 
icism a  young  woman  belonging  to  one  of  those 
bourgeois  families  which  were  the  first  props  of  Cal- 
vinism, and  which,  thanks  to  their  obscure  position 
or  to  certain  arrangements  made  with  Heaven,  had 
escaped  the  persecutions  of  Louis  XIV.  Artisans 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Piedefers — whose 
name  illustrated  one  of  those  grotesque  surnames 
which  the  soldiers  of  the  Reform  gave  themselves — 
had  become  honest  cloth-merchants.  Under  the 
reign  of  Louis  XVI.,  Abraham  Piedefer  had  experi- 
enced such  bad  business  that  at  his  death,  about  1786, 
he  left  his  two  children  in  a  condition  bordering 
on  poverty.  One  of  the  two,  Silas  Piedefer,  de- 
parted for  the  Indies,  abandoning  the  modest  inherit- 
ance to  his  elder  brother.  During  the  Revolution, 
Moise  Piedefer  purchased  national  property,  demol- 
ished abbeys  and  churches  after  the  manner  of  his 
ancestors,  and  married — strangely  enough — a  Cath- 
olic, the  only  daughter  of  a  member  of  the  National 


y8  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

Convention  who  had  died  on  the  scaffold.  This  am- 
bitious Piedefer  died  in  1819,  leaving  to  his  widow  a 
fortune  that  had  been  compromised  in  agricultural 
speculations,  and  a  little  daughter,  twelve  years  of 
age,  of  a  surprising  beauty.  Brought  up  in  the  Cal- 
vinistic  religion,  this  child  had  been  named  Dinah, 
in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  the  Protestants  of 
taking  their  Christian  names  from  the  Bible,  so  as 
to  have  nothing  in  common  with  the  saints  of  the 
Roman  Church.  Mademoiselle  Dinah  Piedefer, 
placed  by  her  mother  in  one  of  the  best  boarding- 
schools  in  Bourges,  that  of  the  Demoiselles  Cham- 
arolles,  there  became  as  celebrated  by  the  qualities 
of  her  mind  as  by  her  beauty  ;  but  she  found  herself 
subordinated  to  the  young  and  wealthy  daughters  of 
the  nobility,  who  would  later  play  in  the  world  a 
much  more  important  role  than  that  of  a  plebeian 
whose  mother  was  waiting  on  the  results  of  the 
Piedefer  liquidation.  After  having  been  able  to  ele- 
vate herself  momentarily  above  her  companions, 
Dinah  wished  to  place  herself  at  least  on  a  level 
with  them  in  life.  She  accordingly  invented  the 
plan  of  abjuring  Calvinism,  hoping  that  the  cardinal 
would  protect  his  spiritual  conquest  and  occupy  him- 
self with  her  future.  You  may  already  judge  of  the 
superiority  of  Mademoiselle  Dinah  who,  at  the  age 
of  seventeen,  had  herself  converted  solely  through 
ambition.  The  archbishop,  filled  with  the  idea  that 
Dinah  Piedefer  should  become  the  ornament  of  the 
world,  endeavored  to  have  her  married.  All  the 
families  to   whom  the   prelate   addressed   himself, 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  79 

were  terrified  by  a  young  girl  endowed  with  the 
manners  of  a  princess,  who  was  reputed  to  be  the 
most  clever  of  all  the  young  women  educated  by  the 
Demoiselles  de  Chamarolles  and  who,  in  the  slightly 
theatrical  solemnities  of  the  distributions  of  prizes, 
always  played  the  principal  roles.  Assuredly,  the 
income  of  three  thousand  francs  which  the  domain  of 
La  Hautoy  undivided  between  the  mother  and  the 
daughter  might  bring  in,  would  be  but  little  in  com- 
parison with  the  expenditure  in  which  the  personal 
advantages  of  a  creature  so  brilliant  would  inevit- 
ably involve  a  husband. 

As  soon  as  the  little  Polydore  de  la  Baudraye  had 
learned  these  details,  which  were  discussed  by  all 
the  circles  of  the  society  of  the  Department  du  Cher, 
he  departed  for  Bourges,  at  the  moment  when 
Madame  Piedefer,  very  zealous  in  her  religious 
duties,  had  almost  come  to  the  determination — as 
had  her  daughter — to  take  the  first  dog  with  long 
ears  that  presented  himself, — according  to  the  ex- 
pression common  in  Berri.  If  the  cardinal  was  very 
happy  to  meet  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye,  Monsieur  de 
la  Baudraye  was  still  more  happy  to  accept  a  wife 
from  the  hands  of  the  cardinal.  The  little  man  re- 
quired from  His  Eminence  the  formal  promise  of  his 
protection  with  the  President  of  the  Council,  with 
the  object  of  realizing  on  the  obligations  of  the  Dues 
de  Navarreins  and  others  by  seizing  their  indemni- 
ties. This  method  seemed  to  the  skilful  minister  of 
the  Pavilion  Marsan  a  trifle  too  sharp ;  he  made 
known  to  the  vineyard-owner  that  his  affairs  would  be 


80  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

attended  to  in  due  time  and  place.  Everyone  can  im- 
agine the  sensation  produced  among  the  Sancerrois 
bythe  senseless  marriage  of  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye. 

"  That  can  readily  be  explained,"  said  the  Presi- 
dent Boirouge,  "the  little  man,  I  have  been  told, 
was  very  much  outraged  to  overhear,  on  the  Mail,  the 
handsome  Monsieur  Milaud,  the  deputy  of  Nevers, 
saying  to  Monsieur  de  Clagny,  pointing  to  the  towers 
of  La  Baudraye  :  '  That  will  come  back  to  me  ! ' — 
'But,'  replied  our  procureur  du  roi,  '  he  may  get  mar- 
ried and  have  children.' — '  He  is  prohibited  from 
that ! '  You  may  imagine  the  hatred  which  an  abor- 
tion like  the  little  La  Baudraye  would  vow  to  that 
colossus  of  a  Milaud." 

There  existed  at  Nevers  a  plebeian  branch  of  the 
Milauds  which  had  so  enriched  itself  in  the  cutlery 
business  that  the  present  representative  of  this 
branch  had  entered  upon  the  career  of  the  public 
ministry,  in  which  he  had  been  protected  by  the 
late  Marchangy. 

Perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  rid,  once  for  all,  this 
story  in  which  morality  plays  a  very  important  part,  of 
the  base  material  interests  with  which  Monsieur  de  la 
Baudraye  was  so  exclusively  occupied  by  recounting 
briefly  the  results  of  his  negotiations  in  Paris.  This 
will,  moreover,  explain  several  mysterious  passages 
in  contemporary  history,  and  the  subjacent  difficul- 
ties which  the  ministers  during  the  Restoration  en- 
countered, on  political  grounds.  The  ministerial  prom- 
ises had  so  little  result  that  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye 
appeared  in  Paris  at  the  moment  when  the  cardinal 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  8 1 

was  called  there  by  the  session  of  the  Chambers. 
This  is  the  manner  in  which  the  Due  de  Navarreins, 
the  first  creditor  menaced  by  Monsieur  de  la  Bau- 
draye,  got  out  of  the  affair.  The  Sancerrois  saw  ar- 
rive one  morning  at  the  hotel  de  Mayence,  where  he 
was  lodged,  in  the  Rue  Saint-Honore,  near  the  Place 
Vendome,  a  confidant  of  the  ministers  who  was  well 
versed  in  liquidations.  This  elegant  personage,  who 
had  come  in  an  elegant  cabriolet,  and  who  was  dressed 
in  the  most  elegant  manner,  was  obliged  to  mount 
to  No.  37,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  third  floor,  where  in 
a  little  room,  he  found  the  provincial  preparing  a  cup 
of  coffee  over  the  fire  in  his  chimney-place. 

"Is  it  to  Monsieur  Milaud  de  la  Baudraye  that  I 
have  the  honor  ? — " 

"Yes,"  replied  the  little  man,  draping  himself  in 
his  dressing-gown. 

After  having  eyed  this  latter  incestuous  product 
of  a  former  figured  wrap  of  Madame  Piedefer  and  a 
dress  of  the  late  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  the  nego- 
tiator found  the  man,  the  dressing-gown  and  the 
little  earthenware  furnace  in  which  the  milk  was 
boiling  in  a  tin  saucepan  so  characteristic,  that  he 
judged  all  craftiness  useless. 

"I  will  bet,  monsieur,"  said  he  audaciously, 
"that  you  dine  for  forty  sous  at  Hurbain's,  in  the 
Palais-Royal." 

"And  why  ?— " 

"  Oh  !  I  recognize  you  by  having  seen  you  there," 
replied  the  Parisian,  maintaining  his  seriousness. 
"  All  the  creditors  of  the  princes  dine  there.  You 
6 


82  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

know  that  scarcely  ten  per  cent,  is  realized  on  the 
claims  against  the  very  greatest  lords.  I  would  not 
give  you  five  per  cent,  for  a  claim  against  the  late 
Due  d'  Orleans — nor  even  against  " — he  lowered  his 
voice—"  against  MONSIEUR—" 

"  You  have  come  to  purchase  my  vouchers  ?  " 
said  the  wine-grower,  who  thought  himself  clever. 

"  To  purchase  ! — "  exclaimed  the  negotiator ;  "for 
whom  do  you  take  me  ? — I  am  Monsieur  des  Lu- 
peaulx,  maitre  des  requetes,  secretary-general  of  the 
ministry,  and  I  come  to  propose  to  you  an  arrange- 
ment." 

"Which  one  ?" 

"You  are  not  ignorant,  monsieur,  of  the  position 
of  your  debtor — " 

"  Of  my  debtors." 

"Well,  monsieur,  you  are  acquainted  with  the 
situation  of  your  debtors,  they  are  in  the  king's 
good  graces,  but  they  are  without  money,  and 
obliged  to  maintain  a  great  display.  You  are  not 
ignorant  of  the  difficulties  of  the  political  situation  ; 
— the  aristocracy  is  to  be  reconstructed,  in  face  of  a 
formidable  Third  Estate.  The  desire  of  the  king, 
who  is  greatly  misjudged  by  France,  is  to  create  in 
the  peerage  a  national  institution,  analogous  to  that 
of  England.  In  order  to  realize  this  great  concep- 
tion, we  shall  require  years  of  time  and  millions  of 
money. — Noblesse  oblige!  the  Due  de  Navarreins, 
who,  as  you  know,  is  the  first  gentleman  of  the 
chamber,  does  not  deny  his  debt,  but  he  cannot — 
Be   reasonable !     Consider  the  political   situation  ! 


THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  83 

We  are  just  issuing  from  the  abyss  of  the  revolu- 
tions. You  are  noble  also  ! —  Then,  he  cannot  pay 
you — " 

"  Monsieur — " 

"  You  are  too  quick,"  said  Des  Lupeaulx,  "  listen. 
— He  cannot  pay  you  in  money  ;  well,  as  the  man  of 
intelligence  that  you  are,  take  your  pay  in  favors 
— royal  or  ministerial." 

"What!  my  father  gave,  in  1793,  a  hundred 
thousand — " 

"  My  dear  monsieur,  do  not  recriminate  !  Listen 
to  a  proposition  of  political  arithmetic ; — the  re- 
ceiver's office  of  Sancerre  is  vacant,  a  former  pay- 
master-general of  the  armies  is  entitled  to  it,  but  he 
has  no  chances  ;  you  have  the  chances  but  you  have 
no  right  to  it ;  you  will  get  the  office.  You  will  fill 
it  for  the  space  of  six  months,  then  you  will  resign, 
and  Monsieur  Gravier  will  give  you  twenty  thousand 
francs.  Moreover,  you  will  be  decorated  with  the 
royal  order  of  the  Legion  of  Honor." 

"That  is  something,"  said  the  wine-grower, 
much  more  attracted  by  the  money  than  by  the 
ribbon. 

"  But,"  resumed  Des  Lupeaulx,  "  you  will  recog- 
nize the  bounties  of  His  Excellency  by  returning  to 
Sa  Seigneurie  le  Due  de  Navarreins  all  your  claims 
against  him — " 

The  wine-grower  returned  to  Sancerre  with  the 
post  of  receiver  of  taxes.  Six  months  later,  he  was 
replaced  by  Monsieur  Gravier,  who  had  the  reputa- 
tion of  having  been  one  of  the  most  obliging  financial 


84  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

men  under  the  Empire,  and  who  was  naturally  pre- 
sented by  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  to  his  wife.  As 
soon  as  he  was  no  longer  receiver,  Monsieur  de  la 
Baudraye  returned  to  Paris  to  have  an  explanation 
with  his  other  debtors.  This  time  he  was  appointed 
referendary,  baron  and  officer  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor.  After  having  sold  the  post  of  referendary, 
the  Baron  de  la  Baudraye  paid  several  visits  to  his 
last  debtors,  and  reappeared  at  Sancerre  with  the 
title  of  maitre  des  requetes,  with  the  position  of  com- 
missioner of  the  king  for  an  anonymous  company 
established  in  Nivernais,  with  six  thousand  francs 
of  appointments,  a  real  sinecure.  The  goodman  La 
Baudraye,  who  was  thought  to  have  committed  a 
folly,  financially  speaking,  had  thus  made  an  excel- 
lent arrangement  by  marrying  his  wife.  Thanks  to 
his  sordid  economy,  to  the  indemnity  which  he  re- 
ceived for  his  father's  property  sold  for  the  benefit 
of  the  nation  in  1793,  the  little  man  realized,  about 
1827,  the  dream  of  his  whole  life.  By  giving  four 
hundred  thousand  francs  cash  down  and  incurring 
obligations  which  condemned  him  to  live  for  the 
next  six  years,  as  he  said,  on  air,  he  was  able  to 
purchase,  on  the  banks  of  the  Loire,  two  leagues 
above  Sancerre,  the  estate  of  Anzy,  of  which  the 
magnificent  chateau,  built  by  Philibert  Delorme,  is 
the  object  of  the  just  admiration  of  connoisseurs, 
and  which  for  the  last  five  hundred  years  had  be- 
longed to  the  house  of  Uxelles.  He  was  finally 
counted  among  the  great  landed  proprietors  of  the 
country.     It  is  not  certain  that  the  joy  caused  by 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  85 

the  establishment  of  a  majorat  composed  of  the 
estate  of  Anzy,  of  the  fief  of  La  Baudraye  and  of 
the  domain  of  La  Hautoy,  by  virtue  of  letters  patent 
dated  December  1829,  was  adequate  compensation 
for  the  chagrin  of  Dinah,  who  saw  herself  thereby 
reduced  to  a  state  of  secret  indigence  until  1835. 
The  prudent  La  Baudraye  did  not  permit  his  wife  to 
inhabit  Anzy  nor  to  make  the  least  alterations  in  it 
until  the  payment  of  the  last  instalment.  This 
bird's-eye  view  of  the  politics  of  the  first  Baron  de 
la  Baudraye  explains  the  whole  man.  Those  to 
whom  the  manias  of  the  people  of  the  provinces  are 
familiar,  will  recognize  in  him  tJie  passion  for  land, 
a  devouring,  exclusive  passion,  a  species  of  avarice 
displayed  in  the  sunlight  and  which  often  leads  to 
ruin  through  a  deficiency  of  equilibrium  between 
the  interest  on  the  mortgages  and  the  productions  of 
the  land.  Those  who,  from  1802  to  1827,  had  de- 
rided the  little  La  Baudraye  when  they  saw  him 
trotting  to  Saint-Thibault  and  absorbed  in  his  own 
affairs  with  the  sharpness  of  a  bourgeois  living  on 
the  product  of  his  vines,  those  who  did  not  compre- 
hend his  contempt  for  the  favor  to  which  he  owed 
his  various  appointments,  abandoned  as  quickly  as 
obtained,  learned  finally  the  answer  to  this  enigma 
when  this  formicaleo  leaped  upon  his  prey,  after 
having  waited  for  the  moment  when  the  prodigality 
of  the  Duchesse  de  Maufrigneuse  had  brought  about 
the  sale  of  this  magnificent  estate. 

Madame  Piedefer  came  to  live  with  her  daughter. 
The  united  fortunes  of  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  and 


86  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

of  his  mother-in-law,  who  had  contented  herself 
with  an  annuity  of  twelve  hundred  francs  while 
abandoning  to  her  son-in-law  the  domain  of  La 
Hautoy,  composed  a  visible  revenue  of  about  fifteen 
thousand  francs.  During  the  early  days  of  her 
marriage  Dinah  had  obtained  some  alterations  which 
made  La  Baudraye  a  very  agreeable  dwelling.  She 
converted  an  immense  court  into  an  English  garden 
by  demolishing  store-rooms,  presses  and  ignoble 
servants'  halls.  She  contrived  behind  the  manor 
house,  a  little  construction  with  towers  and  gable- 
ends  which  was  not  wanting  in  character,  a  second 
garden  with  clumps  of  trees,  flowers  and  lawns,  and 
separated  it  from  the  vines  by  a  wall  which  she 
concealed  under  climbing  plants.  Finally  she  intro- 
duced into  the  interior  of  the  house  as  many  com- 
forts as  the  slenderness  of  the  revenues  permitted. 
That  he  might  not  allow  himself  to  be  devoured 
entirely  by  a  young  person  as  superior  as  Dinah 
appeared  to  be,  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  had  the 
address  to  keep  silent  on  the  subject  of  the  collec- 
tions which  he  had  made  at  Paris.  This  profound 
secret  maintained  concerning  his  interests  gave 
I-know-not-what  of  mystery  to  his  character,  and 
made  him  greater  in  his  wife's  eyes  during  the 
first  years  of  her  marriage,  so  much  has  silence  of 
majesty  !  The  alterations  effected  at  La  Baudraye 
inspired  a  so  much  more  lively  desire  to  see  the 
young  wife,  that  Dinah  did  not  wish  to  show  her- 
self, nor  to  receive,  before  she  had  become  com- 
pletely at  her  ease,  studied  the  country,  and,  above 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  87 

all,  the  silent  La  Baudraye.  When,  on  a  spring 
morning  in  1825,  there  was  seen,  on  the  Mail,  the 
beautiful  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  in  a  gown  of  blue 
velvet,  her  mother  in  a  gown  of  black  velvet,  a 
great  clamor  arose  in  Sancerre.  This  toilet  con- 
firmed the  superiority  of  this  young  woman,  edu- 
cated in  the  capital  of  Berri.  There  was  great  fear, 
in  receiving  this  Berruyer  phoenix,  of  not  saying 
things  that  were  witty  enough,  and  naturally  there 
was  considerable  restraint  before  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye,  which  produced  a  species  of  terror  in  the 
gentle  female.  When  there  was  admired  in  the 
salon  of  La  Baudraye  a  carpet  resembling  a  cash- 
mere, a  Pompadour  piece  of  furniture  in  gilded  wood, 
brocatelle  curtains  at  the  windows,  and  on  a  round 
table,  a  conical  Japanese  vase  filled  with  flowers,  in 
the  midst  of  some  new  books  ;  when  the  beautiful 
Dinah  was  heard  playing  the  piano  from  her  open 
music-book  without  making  the  least  ceremony 
about  taking  her  seat,  the  idea  that  was  entertained 
of  her  superiority  assumed  grand  proportions.  That 
she  might  never  fall  into  habits  of  carelessness  and 
of  bad  taste,  Dinah  had  resolved  to  keep  herself  in 
touch  with  the  fashions  and  the  slightest  modifica- 
tions in  luxury  by  maintaining  an  active  corre- 
spondence with  Anna  Grossetete,  her  dearest  friend 
at  the  Chamarolles  institution.  The  only  daughter 
of  the  receiver-general  at  Bourges,  Anna,  thanks  to 
her  fortune,  had  married  the  third  son  of  the  Comte 
de  Fontaine.  The  women  visitors  at  La  Baudraye 
were  therefore  constantly  offended  by  the  superior 


88  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

knowledge  displayed  by  Dinah  concerning  the  reign- 
ing fashions  ;  and,  do  what  they  might,  they  always 
saw  themselves  distanced,  or,  as  the  habitues  of  the 
race-track  say,  "beaten  by  a  head."  If  all  these 
little  things  caused  a  malicious  envy  in  the  bosoms 
of  the  women  of  Sancerre,  the  conversation  and  the 
wit  of  Dinah  engendered  a  veritable  aversion.  De- 
siring to  maintain  her  intelligence  always  at  the 
level  of  the  Parisian  intellectual  movement,  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye  would  not  permit  in  any  one  either 
empty  discourse,  or  belated  gallantry,  or  meaning- 
less phrases  ;  she  refused  positively  to  listen  to  that 
clamor  of  small  gossip,  that  back-stairs  scandal, 
which  furnishes  the  foundation  of  conversation  in 
the  provinces.  Fond  of  discoursing  of  the  most 
recent  discoveries  in  science  or  in  the  arts,  of  works 
that  had  recently  appeared  at  the  theatres,  in  poetry, 
she  appeared  to  be  presenting  ideas  when  she  was 
merely  making  use  of  words  then  in  fashion. 

The  Abbe  Duret,  the  cure  of  Sancerre,  a  veteran 
of  the  old  clergy  of  France,  a  man  loving  good  com- 
pany and  to  whom  play  was  not  displeasing,  did  not 
dare  to  give  way  to  his  inclinations  in  a  place  as 
liberal  as  Sancerre ;  he  was  therefore  very  well 
pleased  at  the  arrival  of  Madame  de  la  Baudraye, 
with  whom  he  came  to  an  admirable  understanding. 
The  sous-prefet,  a  Vicomte  de  Chargeboeuf,  was 
delighted  to  find  in  the  salon  of  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye a  species  of  oasis  in  which  might  be  enjoyed  a 
respite  from  provincial  life.  As  to  Monsieur  de 
Clagny,  the  procureur  du  roi,  his  admiration  for  the 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  89 

beautiful  Dinah  nailed  him  to  Sancerre.  This  passion- 
ate magistrate  refused  all  advancement,  and  devoted 
himself  to  loving  piously  this  angel  of  grace  and  of 
beauty.  He  was  a  tall,  dry  man  with  a  gallows 
countenance  ornamented  with  two  terrible  eyes  set 
in  blackened  orbits  and  surmounted  by  enormous 
eyebrows,  and  his  eloquence,  quite  unlike  his  love, 
was  biting. 

Monsieur  Gravier  was  a  little  man,  round  and  fat, 
who,  under  the  Empire,  sang  ballads  admirably,  and 
who  was  indebted  to  this  talent  for  the  eminent  post  of 
general  paymaster  in  the  army.  Having  a  share  in 
certain  great  interests  in  Spain  with  certain  generals- 
in-chief  then  on  the  side  of  the  opposition,  he  had 
been  clever  enough  to  profit  by  these  parliamentary 
liaisons  in  approaching  the  minister,  who,  through 
consideration  for  his  lost  position,  promised  him  the 
office  of  receiver  in  Sancerre,  and  ended  by  allowing 
him  to  purchase  it.  The  light  wit,  the  tone  of  the 
Empire,  had  become  heavy  in  Monsieur  Gravier,  he 
did  not  comprehend,  or  would  not  comprehend,  the 
enormous  difference  which  separated  the  manners  of 
the  Restoration  from  those  of  the  Empire  ;  but  he  con- 
sidered himself  much  superior  to  Monsieur  de  Clagny, 
his  appearance  was  in  better  taste,  he  followed  the 
fashions,  he  showed  himself  in  a  yellow  waistcoat, 
in  gray  pantaloons,  in  a  tight-fitting  little  redingote  ; 
he  wore  at  his  neck  silk  cravats  a  La  mode,  orna- 
mented with  diamond  rings,  whilst  the  procureur  du 
roi  never  quitted  his  black  coat,  waistcoat  and  pan- 
taloons, often  threadbare. 


90  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

These  four  personages  were  the  first  to  grow  en- 
thusiastic over  the  education,  the  good  taste,  the 
cleverness  of  Dinah,  and  they  proclaimed  her  a 
woman  of  the  greatest  intelligence.  As  to  the 
women,  they  said  among  themselves  : 

"Madame  de  la  Baudraye  must  indeed  think  us 
ridiculous." 

This  opinion,  more  or  less  just,  had  for  result  the 
keeping  of  the  women  away  from  La  Baudraye. 
Accused  and  convicted  of  pedantry  because  she 
spoke  correctly,  Dinah  was  surnamed  the  Sappho  of 
Saint-Satur.  Everyone  finally  came  to  deriding 
with  effrontery  the  pretended  great  qualities  of  her 
who  thus  became  the  enemy  of  the  Sancerroises. 
In  the  end  they  went  so  far  as  to  deny  a  superiority, 
purely  relative,  moreover,  which  called  attention  to 
ignorance  and  would  not  forgive  it.  When  every- 
one is  humpbacked,  the  fine  figure  becomes  a  mon- 
strosity. Dinah  was  therefore  regarded  as  mon- 
strous and  dangerous,  and  a  waste  solitude  spread 
around  her.  Surprised  at  no  longer  seeing  any 
women,  notwithstanding  all  her  advances,  excepting 
at  long  intervals  and  during  visits  of  a  few  minutes' 
duration,  Dinah  asked  of  Monsieur  de  Clagny  the 
reason  for  this  phenomenon. 

"You  are  too  superior  a  woman  for  the  other 
women  to  love  you,"  replied  the  procureur  du  roi. 

Monsieur  Gravier,  whom  the  poor  abandoned  one 
interrogated,  'allowed  himself  to  be  most  earnestly 
entreated  before  he  replied  to  her  : 

"  But,  fair  lady,  you  are  not  contented  with  being 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  91 

charming,  you  have  wit  and  intelligence,  you  are 
well  educated,  you  keep  yourself  informed  as  to  all 
that  is  written,  you  love  poetry,  you  are  a  musician, 
and  you  have  a  charming  gift  of  conversation  ; — 
women  do  not  forgive  so  many  superiorities  !  " 

The  men  said  to  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye : 

"You  who  have  a  superior  wife,  you  are  very 
fortunate." 

And  he  finally  came  to  saying  : 

"I  who  have  a  superior  wife,  I  am  very — etc." 

Madame  Piedefer,  flattered  through  her  daughter, 
permitted  herself  also  to  say  things  of  this  sort : 

"  My  daughter,  who  is  a  very  superior  woman, 
wrote  yesterday  to  Madame  de  Fontaine  such  and 
such  things." 

For  anyone  who  knows  the  world,  France,  Paris, 
is  it  not  true  that  a  great  many  celebrities  are  estab- 
lished in  this  manner? 


At  the  end  of  two  years,  in  the  latter  part  of  1825, 
Dinah  de  la  Baudraye  was  accused  of  wishing  to  re- 
ceive only  men  ;  then  her  estrangement  from  the 
women  was  made  a  crime.  Not  one  of  her  actions, 
even  the  most  indifferent,  but  was  criticised  or 
misrepresented.  After  having  made  all  the  sacri- 
fices that  a  well  educated  woman  could  make,  and 
having  had  all  the  good  manners  on  her  side,  Ma- 
dame de  la  Baudraye  committed  the  error  of  reply- 
ing to  a  false  friend  who  was  deploring  her  isola- 
tion : 

"I  would  rather  have  my  porringer  empty  than 
with  nothing  in  it." 

This  phrase  produced  terrible  effects  in  Sancerre, 
and  was,  later,  cruelly  turned  against  the  Sappho  of 
Saint-Satur  when,  seeing  her  childless  after  five 
years  of  marriage,  the  little  La  Baudraye  was  de- 
rided. In  order  to  understand  this  provincial  jest, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  recall  to  the  memory  of  those 
who  knew  him,  the  Due  d'Herouville,  of  whom  it 
was  said  that  he  was  the  most  courageous  man  in 
Europe  because  he  dared  to  walk  on  his  two  legs, 

(93) 


94  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

and  he  was  also  accused  of  putting  lead  in  his  shoes  so 
as  not  to  be  carried  away  by  the  wind.  Monsieur  de 
la  Baudraye,  a  little  man,  yellow  and  almost  diaph- 
anous, would  have  been  taken  by  the  Due  d'Herou- 
ville  for  the  first  gentleman  of  his  chamber,  if  the 
grand  equerry  of  France  had  been  in  some  way  the 
grand  duke  of  Baden.  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye, 
whose  legs  were  so  thin  that  he  wore  false  calves  for 
the  sake  of  decency,  whose  thighs  resembled  the  arms 
of  a  well-formed  man,  whose  torso  resembled  suffi- 
ciently well  the  body  of  a  cockchaffer  would  have 
been  for  the  Due  d'Herouville  a  perpetual  flattery. 
In  walking,  the  little  wine-grower  frequently  turned 
his  false  calves  round  on  the  tibia,  so  little  mystery 
did  he  make  of  them,  and  thanked  those  who  noti- 
fied him  of  this  slight  misadventure.  He  preserved 
the  short  breeches,  the  stockings  of  black  silk  and 
the  white  waistcoat  until  1824.  After  his  marriage, 
he  wore  blue  pantaloons  and  boots  with  heels,  which 
caused  all  Sancerre  to  say  that  he  had  made  himself 
two  inches  taller  so  as  to  reach  to  his  wife's  chin.  He 
was  seen  for  ten  years  in  the  same  little  bottle-green 
redingote  with  great  buttons  of  white  metal,  and  a 
black  cravat  which  set  off  his  cold  and  poor-looking 
countenance,  lit  up  by  eyes  of  a  bluish-gray,  dis- 
cerning and  quiet,  like  the  eyes  of  a  cat.  Gentle, 
like  all  those  who  follow  a  definite  line  of  conduct, 
he  appeared  to  make  his  wife  very  happy  in  having 
the  air  of  never  crossing  her,  he  left  the  conversa- 
tion to  her,  and  contented  himself  with  acting  with 
the  slowness,  but  with  the  tenacity,  of  an  insect. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  95 

Adored  for  her  unrivalled  beauty,  admired  for  her 
intelligence  by  the  most  comme  ilfaut  men  in  San- 
cerre,  Dinah  maintained  this  admiration  by  conver- 
sations for  which,  it  was  said  later,  she  prepared 
herself  in  advance.  In  seeing  herself  listened  to 
with  delight,  she  became  by  degrees  accustomed  to 
listening  to  herself  also,  took  pleasure  in  perorating, 
and  ended  by  considering  her  friends  as  so  many 
confidants  of  the  drama  whose  mission  was  to  give 
her  the  cue.  She  procured,  moreover,  a  very  fine 
collection  of  phrases  and  ideas,  either  from  her  read- 
ings or  from  assimilating  the  thoughts  of  her  compan- 
ions, and  became  thus  a  species  of  bird-organ,  the 
music  of  which  began  whenever  an  accident  of  the 
conversation  released  the  stop.  Thirsty  for  knowl- 
edge— let  us  do  her  this  justice — Dinah  read  every- 
thing, even  to  the  works  on  medicine,  statistics, 
science,  jurisprudence  ;  for  she  did  not  know  in 
what  manner  to  employ  her  mornings,  after  having 
inspected  her  flowers  and  given  her  orders  to  the 
gardener.  Gifted  with  a  good  memory  and  with 
that  talent  which  enables  certain  women  always  to 
select  the  right  word,  she  could  speak  on  any  sub- 
ject with  the  lucidity  of  a  studied  style.  Thus  from 
Cosne,  from  La  Charite,  from  Nevers  on  the  right 
bank,  and  from  Lere,  from  Vailly,  from  Argent, 
from  Blancafort,  from  Aubigny  on  the  left  bank, 
people  came  to  be  presented  to  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye,  as  in  Switzerland  they  were  presented  to 
Madame  de  Stael.  Those  who  heard  only  once  the 
airs  of  this   music-box,  went  away  bedazzled,  and 


96  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

said  of  Dinah  marvellous  things  which  rendered  the 
women  jealous  for  ten  leagues  in  every  direction. 
There  exists  in  the  admiration  which  a  person  in- 
spires, or  in  the  playing  of  a  certain  part,  I  know 
not  what  mental  intoxication,  which  does  not  permit 
any  criticism  to  reach  the  idol.  An  atmosphere  pro- 
duced perhaps  by  a  constant  nervous  dilation  makes 
something  like  a  nimbus  through  which  the  world 
is  seen  far  below  one.  How  else  is  to  be  explained 
the  perpetual  good  faith  which  attends  so  many  new 
representations  of  the  same  effects,  and  the  contin- 
ual unthankfulness  for  good  advice  which  is  seen, 
either  in  children,  so  terrible  for  their  parents,  or  in 
husbands,  so  familiar  with  the  innocent  tricks  of  their 
wives  ?  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  had  the  candor  of 
a  man  who  puts  up  an  umbrella  at  the  first  drops  of 
rain.  When  his  wife  brought  up  the  question  of  the 
slave-trade,  or  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of 
the  convicts,  he  took  his  little  blue  cap  and  went  out 
without  any  noise,  with  the  certainty  that  he  could 
go  to  Saint-Thibault  to  inspect  a  delivery  of  pun- 
cheons and  return  an  hour  later  to  find  the  discus- 
sion fully  developed.  If  he  had  nothing  to  do,  he 
went  to  take  a  walk  on  the  Mail,  from  which  might 
be  seen  the  admirable  panorama  of  the  valley  of  the 
Loire,  and  took  a  bath  of  air  while  his  wife  executed 
a  sonata  of  words  and  duets  of  dialectics.  Once  ac- 
cepted as  a  superior  woman,  Dinah  wished  to  give 
visible  gages  of  her  love  for  the  most  remarkable 
creations  of  art,  she  adopted  with  vivacity  all  the 
ideas  of  the  romantic  school, — including  in  art,  poetry 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  97 

and  painting,  the  printed  page  and  the  statue,  the 
piece  of  furniture  and  the  opera.  Thus  she  became 
a  medievalist.  She  became  interested  also  in  curi- 
osities said  to  date  from  the  Renaissance,  and  made 
of  her  disciples  so  many  devoted  commissioners. 
She  acquired,  also,  in  the  early  days  of  her  mar- 
riage, the  furniture  of  Rouget,  at  Issoudun,  at  the 
time  of  the  sale  which  took  place  in  the  beginning  of 
1824.  She  purchased  some  very  beautiful  things  in 
Nivernais  and  in  the  Haute-Loire.  At  New  Year's, 
or  on  her  fete  day,  her  friends  never  failed  to  offer 
her  some  rarities.  These  whims  found  favor  in  the 
eyes  of  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye,  he  had  the  appear- 
ance of  sacrificing  a  few  ecus  to  gratify  his  wife, 
but,  in  reality,  the  man  of  estates  was  thinking  of 
his  chateau  d'Anzy.  These  antiquities  cost  them 
much  less  than  modern  furniture.  At  the  end  of 
five  or  six  years,  the  antechamber,  the  dining-room, 
the  two  salons  and  the  boudoir  which  Dinah  had 
arranged  on  the  ground  floor  of  La  Baudraye,  every 
place,  even  to  the  casing  of  the  stairway,  was 
gorged  with  chefs-d'oeuvre  drawn  from  the  four  sur- 
rounding departments.  These  surroundings,  consid- 
ered very  strange  in  the  provinces,  were  in  harmony 
with  Dinah.  These  marvels,  on  the  point  of  com- 
ing into  fashion  again,  struck  the  imagination  of  the 
guests  who  were  presented,  they  had  expected 
strange  conceptions  and  they  found  their  expectations 
surpassed  when  they  saw  across  a  world  of  flowers, 
these  catacombs  of  old  lumber  arranged  as  in  the 
establishment  of  the  late  Du  Sommerard,  that  Old 
7 


98  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

Mortality  of  furniture  !  These  treasure-troves  were, 
moreover,  so  many  springs  which,  when  occasion 
arrived,  would  spring  dissertations  upon  Jean  Gou- 
jon,  on  Michael  Columb,  on  Germain  Pilon,  on 
Boulle,  on  Van  Huysium,  on  Boucher,  that  great 
Berrichon  painter ;  on  Clodion,  the  carver  in  wood, 
on  the  Venetian  veneerings,  on  Brustolone,  Italian 
tenor,  the  Michael  Angelo  of  evergreen  oak  ;  on  the 
thirteenth,  fourteenth,  fifteenth,  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries,  on  the  enamels  of  Bernard  Palissy, 
on  those  of  Petitot,  on  the  engravings  of  Albert 
Durer — which  she  pronounced  Dur — on  illuminated 
vellums,  on  florid,  flamboyant,  ornamented  and 
pure  Gothic,  to  confound  the  old  men  and  inspire 
the  young  ones. 

Animated  with  the  desire  to  vivify  Sancerre,  Ma- 
dame de  la  Baudraye  endeavored  to  form  in  it  a 
society  to  be  called  literary.  The  president  of  the 
tribunal,  Monsieur  Boirouge,  who  at  that  time  found 
himself  with  a  house  with  a  garden,  belonging  to  the 
Popinot-Chandier  inheritance,  on  his  hands,  favored 
the  creation  of  this  society.  This  shrewd  magistrate 
came  to  arrange  the  statutes  with  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye,  he  wished  to  be  one  of  the  founders,  and 
he  leased  his  house  for  fifteen  years  to  the  literary 
society.  By  the  second  year  they  were  playing  dom- 
inoes, billiards,  bouillotte,  drinking  sweetened  hot 
wine,  punch  and  liquors.  Several  fine  little  suppers 
were  given  there,  and  masked  balls  were  held  there 
during  the  Carnival.  As  to  literature,  they  read  the 
journals  there,  they  talked  politics  there  and  dis- 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  99 

cussed  business  affairs.  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye 
went  there  assiduously  for  his  wife's  sake,  he  said 
jestingly. 

These  results  afflicted  this  superior  woman,  who 
despaired  of  Sancerre,  and  concentrated  thereafter  in 
her  salon  all  the  wit  of  the  province.  Nevertheless, 
notwithstanding  all  the  good  will  of  Messieurs  Charge- 
boeuf,  Gravier,  de  Clagny,  of  the  Abbe  Duret,  of 
the  first  and  second  deputies,  of  a  young  physician, 
of  a  young  assistant  justice,  blind  admirers  of  Dinah, 
there  were  moments  when,  weary  of  warfare,  excur- 
sions were  permitted  into  the  domain  of  agreeable 
futilities  which  compose  the  common  stock  of  the 
conversations  of  the  world.  Monsieur  Gravier  called 
this  passing  from  the  grave  to  the  gay.  The  whist  of 
the  Abbe  Duret  made  a  useful  diversion  from  what 
were  practically  the  monologues  of  the  goddess. 
The  three  rivals,  fatigued  with  keeping  their  minds 
stretched  in  discussions  of  the  highest  order,  for  it  was 
thus  they  characterized  their  conversations,  but  not 
daring  to  betray  the  least  satiety,  would  sometimes 
turn  with  a  sly  air  to  the  old  priest. 

"  Monsieur  le  cure  is  dying  to  get  up  his  little 
game,"  they  would  say. 

The  intelligent  cure  lent  himself  with  sufficient 
readiness  to  the  hypocrisy  of  his  confederates,  he 
resisted,  he  exclaimed  : 

"  We  should  lose  too  much  by  not  listening  to  our 
charming,  inspired  hostess  !  " 

And  he  would  incite  the  generosity  of  Dinah,  who 
would  finally  take   pity  on   her   dear   cure.     This 


IOO  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

brazen  manoeuvre,  first  invented  by  the  sous-prefet, 
was  practised  with  so  much  astuteness  that  Dinah 
never  suspected  the  escape  of  her  convicts  into  the 
prison  court  of  the  card  table  ;  she  had  then  only  the 
young  deputy  or  the  doctor  to  bedevil.  A  young 
landed  proprietor,  the  dandy  of  Sancerre,  lost  Dinah's 
favor  by  some  imprudent  demonstrations.  After 
having  solicited  the  honor  of  being  admitted  into  this 
sacred  guest-chamber,  flattering  himself  that  he 
would  carry  away  from  it  its  flower,  despite  the  con- 
stitutional authorities  who  there  cultivated  it,  he 
had  the  misfortune  to  yawn  during  an  explanation 
which  Dinah  deigned  to  give  him — for  the  fourth 
time,  it  is  true — of  the  philosophy  of  Kant.  Monsieur 
de  la  Thaumassiere,  the  grandson  of  the  historian  of 
Berri,  was  regarded  as  a  man  completely  destitute 
of  intelligence  and  soul. 

The  three  official  lovers  submitted  to  these  exor- 
bitant expenditures  of  intelligence  and  attentiveness 
in  the  hope  of  the  sweetest  of  triumphs,  at  the  mo- 
ment when  Dinah  would  become  human,  for  not  one 
of  them  had  the  audacity  to  think  that  she  would 
lose  her  conjugal  innocence  before  having  lost  her 
illusions.  In  1826,  the  epoch  at  which  Dinah  saw 
herself  surrounded  by  homage,  she  attained  her 
twentieth  year,  and  the  Abbe  Duret  maintained  in 
her  a  species  of  Catholic  ardor  ;  her  adorers  there- 
fore contented  themselves  with  overwhelming  her 
with  little  thoughtful nesses,  they  surrounded  her  with 
services,  with  attentions,  happy  to  be  taken  for  the 
chevaliers  of  honor  of  this  queen  by  the  presented 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  IOI 

guests  who  came  to  pass  one  or  two  evenings  at  La 
Baudraye. 

"  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  is  a  fruit  which  must 
be  left  to  ripen,"  such  was  the  opinion  of  Monsieur 
Gravier,  who  was  waiting. 

As  for  the  magistrate,  he  wrote  letters  of  four 
pages  in  length  to  which  Dinah  replied  with  quiet- 
ing words  while  taking  a  turn  after  dinner  around 
her  lawn,  leaning  on  the  arm  of  her  adorer. 
Guarded  by  these  three  passions,  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye,  accompanied,  moreover,  by  her  devout 
mother,  escaped  all  the  misfortunes  of  slander.  It 
was  so  evident  in  Sancerre  that  not  one  of  these 
three  men  would  leave  one  of  their  number  alone 
with  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  that  their  jealousy 
gave  the  affair  a  comic  aspect.  To  go  from  the  Porte 
Cesar  to  Saint-Thibault,  there  is  a  much  shorter 
road  than  that  of  the  Grands-Remparts,  and  which 
in  mountainous  countries  is  called  une  coursie're,  but 
which  is  called  in  Sancerre  le  Casse-cou — Break-neck. 
This  name  indicates  with  sufficient  clearness  a  path 
traced  on  the  steepest  slope  of  the  mountain,  en- 
cumbered with  stones  and  embanked  by  the  slopes 
of  the  vineyards.  By  taking  the  Casse-cou  the 
route  is  shortened  from  Sancerre  to  La  Baudraye. 
The  women,  jealous  of  the  Sappho  of  Saint-Satur, 
would  take  their  promenades  on  the  Mail  to  look  at 
this  Longchamp  of  the  authorities,  occasionally  they 
would  stop  and  engage  in  conversation,  sometimes 
the  sous-prefet,  sometimes  the  procureur  du  roi,  who 
would  then  betray  symptoms  of  a  visible  impatience 


102  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

or  of  a  very  rude  inattention.  As  from  the  Mail  the 
towers  of  La  Baudraye  could  be  seen,  more  than  one 
young  man  went  there  to  contemplate  the  dwelling 
of  Dinah,  envying  the  privilege  of  the  ten  or  twelve 
habitues  who  passed  the  evenings  in  the  presence  of 
the  queen  of  the  Sancerrois.  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye 
had  early  remarked  the  ascendancy  which  his  quality 
as  husband  gave  him  over  his  wife's  gallants,  and 
he  made  use  of  them  with  the  most  entire  candor, 
he  obtained  reductions  of  taxes,  and  he  gained  two 
petty  lawsuits.  In  all  his  litigation,  he  made  the 
weight  of  the  authority  of  the  procureur  du  roi  felt 
in  such  a  manner  as  no  longer  to  see  himself  opposed, 
and  he  was  exacting  and  disputatious  in  business 
affairs,  like  all  dwarfs,  but  always  with  mildness. 

Nevertheless,  the  more  brilliant  the  innocence  of 
Madame  de  la  Baudraye  appeared,  the  more  im- 
possible her  situation  became  in  the  inquisitive  eyes 
of  the  women.  Frequently  the  La  Baudraye  house- 
hold was  discussed  through  entire  evenings  in  the 
salons  of  Madame  la  Presidents  Boirouge  by  the 
ladies  of  a  certain  age, — among  themselves,  be  it 
understood.  All  of  them  had  a  presentiment  of  one 
of  those  mysteries,  the  secret  of  which  interests  so 
keenly  women  who  have  had  experience  in  life. 
There  was  taking  place  at  La  Baudraye,  in  fact,  one 
of  those  long  and  monotonous  conjugal  tragedies 
which  would  remain  eternally  unknown  if  the  re- 
morseless scalpel  of  the  nineteenth  century,  urged 
by  the  necessity  of  finding  something  new,  did  not 
search  the  most  obscure  corners  of  the  heart,  or,  if 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  103 

you  like,  those  which  the  modesty  of  preceding 
centuries  had  respected.  And  this  domestic  drama 
explains  sufficiently  well  the  virtue  of  Dinah  during 
the  first  years  of  her  marriage. 

A  young  girl  whose  success  at  the  Chamarolles 
institute  had  had  its  moving  spring  in  pride,  whose 
first  calculation  had  been  recompensed  with  a  first 
victory,  was  not  likely  to  arrest  her  steps  in  so  prom- 
ising a  road.  However  puny  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye 
may  have  appeared,  he  was,  for  Mademoiselle  Dinah 
Piedefer,  a  parti  truly  unhoped  for.  What  could  be 
the  secret  intention  of  this  wine-grower  in  marrying, 
at  forty-four  years  of  age,  a  young  girl  of  seventeen, 
and  what  could  his  wife  gain  from  him  ?  Such  was 
the  first  text  of  Dinah's  meditations.  The  little  man 
perpetually  deceived  his  wife's  observation.  Thus, 
at  the  very  first,  he  allowed  to  be  taken  the  four 
precious  acres  wasted  in  embellishment  around  La 
Baudraye,  and  he  gave  almost  generously  the  seven 
or  eight  thousand  francs  required  for  the  interior 
arrangements  directed  by  Dinah,  who  was  enabled 
to  purchase  at  Issoudun  the  Rouget  furniture  and 
undertake  in  her  own  house  the  system  of  her  decora- 
tions mediaeval,  Louis  XIV.,  and  Pompadour.  The 
young  wife  thus  had  difficulty  in  believing  that 
Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  was  avaricious,  as  she  was 
told,  or  she  could  think  that  she  had  acquired  a  little 
ascendancy  over  him.  This  error  lasted  for  eighteen 
months.  After  his  second  journey  to  Paris,  Dinah 
recognized  in  him  the  polar  cold  of  the  avaricious  of 
the  provinces  in  everything  relating  to  money.     At 


104  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

the  first  request  for  funds,  she  played  the  most 
graceful  of  those  comedies  the  secret  of  which  has 
descended  from  Eve  ;  but  the  little  man  explained 
clearly  to  his  wife  that  he  would  give  her  two 
hundred  francs  a  month  for  her  personal  expenses, 
that  he  would  allow  twelve  hundred  francs  of  annuity 
to  Madame  Piedefer  for  the  domain  of  La  Hautoy, 
that  the  thousand  ecus  of  the  dot  would  thus  be 
exceeded  by  a  sum  of  two  hundred  francs  a  year. 

"I  am  not  speaking  to  you  of  our  household 
expenses,"  he  said  in  concluding,  "  I  will  allow  you 
to  offer  cakes  and  tea  to  your  friends  in  the  evenings, 
for  it  is  necessary  that  you  should  amuse  yourself ; 
but,  I  who  did  not^  expend  fifteen  hundred  francs  a 
year  before  my  marriage,  I  now  expend  six  thousand 
francs,  including  taxes  and  repairs,  that  is  a  little  too 
much,  considering  the  nature  of  our  property.  A 
wine-grower  is  never  sure  of  his  expenses, — the 
tillage,  the  taxes,  the  casks  ;  whilst  the  receipts 
depend  upon  a  bit  of  sunshine  or  a  frost.  The  small 
proprietors,  such  as  we  are,  whose  revenues  are  far 
from  certain,  should  figure  upon  their  minimum,  for 
they  have  no  means  of  repairing  an  extra  expense 
or  a  loss.  What  would  become  of  us  if  a  wine- 
merchant  should  fail  ?  Thus  for  me,  the  bills  receiv- 
able are  no  more  than  cabbage  leaves.  To  live  as 
we  are  living,  we  should  then  have  always  at  least 
a  year's  income  ahe'a'd  of  us,  and  count  only  upon 
two-thirds  of  our  receipts." 

It  is  sufficient  that  there  should  be  any  resistance 
whatever  for  a  woman  to  desire  to  overcome  it,  and 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  105 

Dinah  threw  herself  against  a  soul  of  bronze,  cot- 
toned with  the  softest  manners.  She  endeavored  to 
inspire  fear  and  jealousy  in  this  little  man,  but  she 
found  him  encamped  in  the  most  insolent  tran- 
quillity. He  left  Dinah  to  go  to  Paris  with  the 
certainty  which  Medoro  would  have  had  of  the  faith- 
fulness of  Angelica.  When  she  became  cold  and 
disdainful  in  order  to  touch  this  abortion  to  the  quick 
by  the  scorn  which  the  courtesans  employ  against 
their  protectors  and  which  acts  upon  them  with  the 
precision  of  the  screw  of  a  press,  Monsieur  de  la 
Baudraye  turned  upon  his  wife  eyes  fixed  like  those 
of  a  cat  which,  in  the  presence  of  domestic  trouble, 
waits  for  the  threat  of  a  blow  before  leaving  her 
place.  The  sort  of  inexplicable  inquietude  which 
revealed  itself  through  this  silent  indifference  almost 
terrified  this  young  wife  of  twenty  ;  she  could  not 
comprehend  at  all,  at  first,  the  tranquil  egotism  of  this 
man,  comparable  to  a  cracked  pot,  who,  in  order  to 
live,  had  regulated  the  movements  of  his  existence 
with  the  fatal  precision  which  the  clockmakers  give 
to  their  pendulums.  Thus  the  little  man  constantly 
escaped  from  his  wife ;  she  combated  him  con- 
stantly with  blows  ten  feet  above  his  head.  It  is 
more  easy  to  comprehend  than  to  depict  the  trans- 
ports of  rage  into  which  Dinah  fell  when  she  saw 
herself  condemned  to  remain  forever  in  La  Baudraye 
and  Sancerre,  she  who  had  dreamed  of  managing  the 
fortune  and  of  directing  the  career  of  this  dwarf 
whom  she,  a  giantess,  had  at  first  obeyed  for  the 
sake  of  commanding.     In  the  hope  of  making  her 


106  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

debut  some  day  on  the  great  theatre  of  Paris,  she 
accepted  the  commonplace  incense  of  her  chevaliers  of 
honor,  she  wished  to  make  the  name  of  Monsieur  de 
la  Baudraye  issue  from  the  electoral  urn,  for  she 
believed  him  to  have  ambition  when  she  saw  him 
return  thrice  from  Paris  after  having  mounted  each 
time  a  round  in  the  social  ladder.  But  when  she 
interrogated  the  heart  of  this  man,  she  struck  against 
marble ! — The  ex-receiver,  the  ex-referendary,  the 
maitre  des  requetes,  the  officer  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor,  the  commissioner  royal,  was  a  mole  occupied 
in  tracing  his  subterranean  mine  around  a  vineyard  ! 
What  elegies  were  then  poured  into  the  heart  of  the 
procureur  du  roi,  of  the  sous-prefet,  and  even  of 
Monsieur  Gravier,  who,  all  of  them,  became  even 
more  attached  to  this  sublime  victim  ;  for  she  care- 
fully avoided — as  do  all  women,  for  that  matter — 
speaking  of  her  calculations,  and,  like  all  other 
women  also,  when  she  saw  herself  shut  out  from  all 
speculation,  she  reviled  speculation.  Dinah,  agi- 
tated by  these  inward  tempests,  reached,  in  a  state 
of  indecision,  the  year  1827,  when,  near  the  end  of 
the  autumn,  came  suddenly  the  news  of  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  estate  of  Anzy  by  the  Baron  de  la  Bau- 
draye. This  little  old  fellow  then  experienced  an 
emotion  of  proud  joy  which  brought  about,  for  a  few 
months,  a  change  in  his  wife's  ideas  ;  she  believed 
in  something,  I  know  not  what,  great  in  him  when 
she  saw  him  endeavoring  to  obtain  the  erection  of  a 
majorat.  In  his  triumph  the  little  baron  exclaimed  : 
'*  Dinah,  you  will  be  a  countess  some  day." 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  107 

There  was  then  brought  about  between  this  couple 
those  patchings-up  which  do  not  hold,  and  which  are 
likely  to  weary  as  much  as  they  humiliate  a  wife  of 
whom  the  apparent  superiorities  are  false  and  of 
whom  the  hidden  superiorities  are  real.  This  gro- 
tesque contradiction  is  more  frequent  than  is 
thought.  Dinah,  who  made  herself  ridiculous  by 
the  caprices  of  her  mind,  was  great  in  the  qualities 
of  her  soul ;  but  circumstances  did  not  bring  these 
rare  forces  into  light,  whilst  the  provincial  life  de- 
based from  day  to  day  the  small  change  of  her  mind. 
Through  a  contrary  phenomenon,  Monsieur  de  la 
Baudraye,  without  strength,  without  soul  and  without 
wit,  would  some  day  appear  as  a  great  character  by 
following  quietly  a  line  of  conduct  from  which  his 
debility  did  not  permit  him  to  deviate. 

This  was,  in  this  existence,  a  preliminary  phase 
which  lasted  for  six  years,  and  during  which  Dinah 
became,  alas  !  a  woman  of  the  provinces.  At  Paris, 
there  exist  several  species  of  women, — there  is  the 
duchess  and  the  banker's  wife,  the  wife  of  the  am- 
bassador and  the  wife  of  the  consul,  the  wife  of  the 
minister  who  is  a  minister  and  the  wife  of  him  who 
is  so  no  longer ;  there  is  the  woman  comme  ilfaut  of 
the  right  bank  and  she  of  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine  ; 
but  in  the  provinces,  there  is  only  one  woman,  and 
this  poor  woman  is  the  woman  of  the  provinces. 
This  observation  designates  one  of  the  very  great  de- 
fects of  our  modern  society.  Observe  this  well ! 
France  in  the  nineteenth  century  is  divided  into  two 
great  zones, — Paris  and  the  provinces  ;  the  provinces 


108  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

jealous  of  Paris,  Paris  thinking  of  the  provinces  only 
to  draw  money  from  them.  Formerly,  Paris  was 
the  first  city  of  the  provinces,  the  court  having  the 
first  place  in  the  city  ;  to-day,  Paris  is  the  whole 
court,  the  provinces  the  whole  city.  However  great, 
however  beautiful,  however  capable  may  be  at  her 
debut  a  young  girl  born  in  any  department  whatever, 
if,  like  Dinah  Piedefer,  she  marries  in  the  provinces 
and  remains  there,  she  presently  becomes  a  woman 
of  the  provinces.  Despite  all  her  fixed  projects, 
the  commonplaces,  the  mediocrity  of  the  ideas,  the 
carelessness  in  dress,  the  horticulture  of  vulgarities, 
take  possession  of  the  sublime  being  hidden  in  this 
new  soul,  and  everything  is  said, — the  beautiful 
plant  withers.  How  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  From 
their  earliest  years,  the  young  girls  of  the  provinces 
see  only  provincials  around  them,  they  can  imagine 
nothing  better,  they  have  only  mediocrities  to  choose 
from  ;  the  provincial  fathers  marry  their  daughters 
only  to  provincial  youths  ;  it  occurs  to  no  one  to 
cross  the  races,  the  spiritual  nature  necessarily  de- 
clines ;  thus  in  many  cities,  intelligence  has  become 
as  rare  as  the  blood  there  is  ugly.  Man  becomes 
stunted  in  both  qualities,  for  the  sinister  idea  of  the 
suitability  of  fortunes  presides  over  all  the  matri- 
monial conventions.  The  talented  ones,  the  artists, 
the  superior  men,  all  the  cocks  with  brilliant  plumage, 
fly  off  to  Paris.  Inferior  as  a  woman,  the  provin- 
cial wife  is  still  more  inferior  through  her  husband. 
Live  happily  then  if  you  can  with  these  two  crush- 
ing reflections  !     But  the  conjugal  inferiority  and  the 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  109 

radical  inferiority  of  the  provincial  wife  are  aggra- 
vated by  a  third  and  terrible  inferiority  which  con- 
tributes to  render  this  figure  dry  and  sombre,  to 
contract  it,  to  lessen  it,  to  age  it  fatally.  One  of  the 
most  agreeable  flatteries  which  the  women  take  to 
themselves,  is  it  not  the  certainty  of  counting  for 
something  in  the  life  of  a  superior  man  chosen  by 
them  after  due  examination,  as  if  to  take  their  re- 
venge for  the  marriage  in  which  their  tastes  are 
very  little  consulted  ?  Now,  in  the  provinces,  if 
there  is  no  superiority  among  the  husbands,  there 
exists  still  less  among  the  bachelors.  Thus  when 
the  woman  of  the  provinces  commits  her  little  fault, 
she  is  always  enamored  of  some  pretended  fine  man, 
or  some  indigenous  dandy,  of  some  youth  who  wears 
gloves,  who  is  said  to  know  how  to  ride  horseback  ; 
but,  in  the  bottom  of  her  heart,  she  knows  that  her 
vows  are  addressed  to  a  commonplace,  more  or  less 
well  dressed.  Dinah  was  preserved  from  this  dan- 
ger by  the  idea  which  had  been  given  her  of  her 
superiority.  Had  she  not  been,  during  the  first 
days  of  her  marriage,  as  well  guarded  as  she  was 
by  her  mother,  whose  presence  was  wearisome  to 
her  only  at  the  moments  in  which  she  had  an  inter- 
est in  sending  her  away,  she  would  have  been 
guarded  by  her  pride  and  by  the  height  at  which  she 
placed  her  destinies.  Sufficiently  flattered  to  see 
herself  surrounded  by  admirers,  she  saw  no  lover 
among  them.  Not  one  man  realized  the  poetic  ideal 
which  she  had  already  sketched  out  in  concert  with 
Anna  Grossetete.     When,   vanquished  by  the   in- 


110  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

voluntary  temptations  which  the  homages  awak- 
ened in  her,  she  said  to  herself:  "Which  should  I 
choose,  if  it  were  absolutely  necessary  to  give  one's 
self  ?  "  she  felt  a  preference  for  Monsieur  de  Charge- 
bceuf,  a  gentleman  of  a  good  family,  whose  person 
and  whose  manners  pleased  her,  but  whose  calcu- 
lating mind,  whose  egotism,  whose  ambition  narrow- 
ed to  a  prefecture  and  a  good  marriage,  revolted  her. 
At  the  first  word  from  his  family,  which  feared  to 
see  him  throw  away  his  life  by  a  low  intrigue,  the 
viscount  had  already  abandoned  without  remorse  an 
adored  woman  in  his  first  sous-prefecture.  On  the 
contrary,  the  person  of  Monsieur  de  Clagny,  the 
only  one  whose  mind  was  in  real  communication 
with  Dinah's,  who'se  ambition  had  love  for  its  prin- 
ciple and  who  knew  how  to  love,  displeased  her 
very  greatly.  When  she  found  herself  condemned 
to  remain  six  years  longer  in  La  Baudraye,  she  was 
going  to  accept  the  attentions  of  Monsieur  le  Vicomte 
de  Chargeboeuf ;  but  he  was  appointed  prefect  and 
left  the  department.  To  the  great  contentment  of  the 
procureur  du  roi,  the  new  sous-prefet  was  a  mar- 
ried man  whose  wife  became  intimate  with  Dinah. 
Monsieur  de  Clagny  had  no  longer  any  other  rivalry 
to  combat  than  that  of  Monsieur  Gravier.  Now 
Monsieur  Gravier  was  the  type  of  that  man  of  forty 
whom  the  women  make  use  of  and  ridicule,  whose 
hopes  are  knowingly  and  remorselessly  fostered  by 
them  just  as  one  takes  care  of  a  beast  of  burden. 
During  six  years,  among  all  the  men  who  were  pre- 
sented to  her,  from  twenty  leagues  around,  there 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  ill 

was  not  found  one  at  the  sight  of  whom  Dinah  ex- 
perienced that  commotion  which  is  caused  by  beauty, 
by  the  belief  in  happiness,  by  the  contact  with  a 
superior  soul,  or  by  the  presentiment  of  any  love 
whatever,  even  an  unhappy  one. 

Not  one  of  the  finer  faculties  of  Dinah  was,  then, 
able  to  develop,  she  concealed  the  wounds  given  her 
pride,  constantly  offended  by  her  husband,  who 
promenaded  himself  so  complacently  and  as  a  super- 
numerary across  the  stage  of  her  life.  Obliged  to 
bury  the  treasures  of  her  love,  she  gave  herself  only 
outwardly  to  her  society.  There  were  moments 
when  she  shook  herself,  when  she  wished  to  take 
some  virile  resolution  ;  but  she  was  held  in  leash  by 
the  question  of  money.  Thus,  slowly  and  despite 
her  ambitious  protestations,  despite  the  elegiac  re- 
criminations of  her  spirit,  she  underwent  the  pro- 
vincial transformations  which  have  just  been  de- 
scribed. Every  day  carried  away  a  shred  of  her 
early  resolutions.  She  had  written  out  for  herself  a 
programme  of  toilet  cares  which,  by  degrees,  she 
abandoned.  If,  at  first,  she  followed  the  fashions, 
if  she  kept  herself  informed  as  to  the  little  inven- 
tions of  luxury,  she  was  obliged  to  restrict  her  pur- 
chases to  the  figure  of  her  allowance.  Instead  of 
four  hats,  six  bonnets  and  six  dresses,  she  con- 
tented herself  with  one  dress  for  each  season.  She 
was  thought  to  be  so  pretty  in  a  certain  hat,  that 
she  wore  that  hat  the  following  year.  It  was  this 
way  with  everything.  Frequently  the  artist  sacri- 
ficed the  requirements  of  her  toilet  to  the  desire  to 


112  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

have  a  Gothic  piece  of  furniture.  In  the  course  of 
the  seventh  year,  she  came  to  the  point  of  finding  it 
convenient  to  have  her  morning  gowns  made  under 
her  eyes  by  the  most  skilful  seamstress  of  the  de- 
partment, and  her  mother,  her  husband,  her  friends, 
thought  her  charming  in  these  economical  toilets  in 
which,  according  to  her  custom,  her  good  taste  was 
displayed.  Her  ideas  were  copied  ! —  As  she  had 
before  her  eyes  no  standard  of  comparison,  Dinah 
fell  into  the  trap  that  is  set  for  all  women  in  the 
provinces.  If  a  Parisienne  has  not  her  hips  suffi- 
ciently well  developed,  her  inventive  spirit  and  the 
desire  to  please  will  enable  her  to  find  some  heroic 
remedy  ;  if  she  has  some  fault,  some  grain  of  ugli- 
ness, any  blemish  whatever,  she  is  capable  of  mak- 
ing an  attraction  of  it, — that  is  often  seen  ;  but  the 
woman  of  the  provinces,  never !  If  her  figure  is  too 
short,  if  her  embonpoint  is  badly  placed,  well,  she 
takes  things  as  they  are,  and  her  adorers,  under 
penalty  of  not  loving  her,  must  accept  her  as  she  is, 
whilst  the  Parisienne  wishes  always  to  be  taken  for 
that  which  she  is  not.  Hence  those  grotesque 
figures,  those  shameless  meagrenesses,  those  ridic- 
ulous fulnesses,  those  ungracious  lines,  presented 
in  all  candor,  to  which  a  whole  city  is  accustomed, 
and  which  cause  surprise  when  a  woman  of  the 
provinces  appears  in  Paris,  or  before  the  Parisians. 
Dinah,  whose  figure  was  slender,  made  the  most  of 
it  to  an  exaggerated  degree  and  did  not  in  the  least 
perceive  the  moment  when  she  became  ridiculous, 
when,  ennui  having  made  her  still  thinner,  she  ap- 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  113 

peared  to  be  a  clothed  skeleton  ;  her  friends,  seeing 
her  every  day,  did  not  notice  the  insensible  change 
in  her  personal  appearance.  This  phenomenon  is 
one  of  the  natural  results  of  life  in  the  provinces. 
Notwithstanding  marriage,  a  young  girl  still  remains 
beautiful  for  some  time,  the  town  is  proud  of  her ; 
but  each  one  sees  her  every  day,  and  when  things 
are  seen  every  day,  the  observation  becomes  dulled. 
If,  like  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  she  loses  a  little  of 
her  brilliancy,  it  is  scarcely  perceived.  It  is  even 
better,  a  little  redness,  that  is  understood,  that  ex- 
cites interest.  A  little  negligence  is  thought  admira- 
ble. Moreover,  the  physiognomy  is  so  well  studied, 
so  well  understood,  that  the  slight  alterations  are 
scarcely  remarked,  and  perhaps  in  the  end  they 
come  to  be  regarded  as  slight  additions  to  beauty. 
When  Dinah  did  not  renew  her  toilet  with  the 
seasons,  she  appeared  to  have  made  a  concession  to 
the  philosophy  of  the  country.  It  is  the  same  way 
with  conversation,  with  the  fashions  of  language 
and  of  ideas,  as  with  feeling, — the  mind  grows  rusty 
as  well  as  the  body,  if  it  cannot  renew  itself  in  the 
Parisian  world  ;  but  that  in  which  provincial  life 
most  manifests  itself  is  in  the  gesture,  the  walk,  the 
movements,  which  lose  that  agility  which  Paris  in- 
cessantly communicates.  The  woman  of  the  prov- 
inces is  accustomed  to  walk,  to  move  about  in  a 
sphere  without  accidents,  without  transitions  ;  she 
has  nothing  to  avoid,  she  goes  along  like  the  recruits 
in  Paris,  not  thinking  that  there  may  be  any  ob- 
stacles ;  for  there  are  none  for  her  in  her  province, 


114  THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

where  she  is  known,  where  she  is  always  in  her 
place  and  where  everybody  makes  way  for  her. 
The  woman  then  loses  the  charm  of  the  unforeseen. 
Finally,  have  you  remarked  the  singular  phenom- 
enon of  the  reaction  which  is  produced  upon  men  by 
this  life  in  common  ?  Through  the  inevitable  ten- 
dency of  a  simian  imitation,  persons  grow  to  model 
themselves  upon  each  other.  Each  one  takes  on, 
without  perceiving  it,  the  gestures,  the  manner  of 
speaking,  the  attitudes,  the  airs,  the  very  counte- 
nance of  the  other.  In  the  course  of  six  years,  Dinah 
took  the  tone  of  her  society.  In  adopting  the  ideas 
of  Monsieur  de  Clagny,  she  adopted  the  sound  of  his 
voice  ;  she  imitated,  without  perceiving  it,  the  mas- 
culine manners  in  seeing  none  but  men ; — she 
thought  she  could  guarantee  herself  against  all  their 
ridicule  by  deriding  them  ;  but,  as  it  happens  to  cer- 
tain jesters,  there  remained  some  traces  of  the  thing 
derided,  in  her  own  nature.  A  Parisienne  has  before 
her  too  many  examples  of  good  taste  for  the  con- 
trary phenomenon  not  to  take  place.  Thus,  the 
women  of  Paris  wait  for  the  hour  and  the  moment 
to  be  justly  appreciated  ;  whilst  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye,  accustomed  to  seeing  herself  on  the  stage, 
contracted  something  undefinable  of  theatrical  and 
overbearing,  the  air  of  a  prima  donna  entering  on 
the  scene,  which  the  mocking  smiles  would  very 
soon  have  reformed  in  Paris.  When  she  had  ac- 
quired her  full  measure  of  absurdity,  and  when, 
deceived  by  her  enchanted  adorers,  she  thought  she 
had  acquired  new  graces,  she  experienced  a  moment 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  115 

of  terrible  awakening  which  was  like  an  avalanche 
falling  from  a  mountain.  Dinah  was  overwhelmed 
one  day  by  a  frightful  comparison.  In  1828,  after 
the  departure  of  Monsieur  de  Chargeboeuf,  she  was 
agitated  by  the  anticipation  of  a  small  happiness — 
she  was  going  to  see  again  the  Baronne  de  Fontaine. 
On  the  death  of  his  father,  Anna's  husband,  now 
become  director-general  in  the  ministry  of  finance, 
took  advantage  of  a  leave  of  absence  to  journey  with 
his  wife  to  Italy,  during  the  period  of  his  mourning. 
Anna  wished  to  stop  for  a  day  at  Sancerre,  to  visit 
the  friend  of  her  childhood.  This  meeting  had 
something  indescribably  unfortunate  about  it.  Anna, 
far  less  beautiful  at  the  Chamarolles  institute  than 
Dinah,  as  Baronne  de  Fontaine  appeared  to  be  a 
thousand  times  more  beautiful  than  the  Baronne  de 
la  Baudraye,  notwithstanding  her  fatigue  and  her 
travelling  costume.  Anna  descended  from  a  charm- 
ing travelling  coupe,  loaded  with  the  bandboxes  of 
the  Parisienne  ;  she  had  with  her  a  femme  de 
chambre  whose  elegance  dismayed  Dinah.  Every 
one  of  the  differences  which  distinguish  the  Pari- 
sienne from  the  woman  of  the  provinces  suddenly 
displayed  itself  to  the  intelligent  eyes  of  Dinah,  she 
saw  herself  then  such  as  she  appeared  to  her  friend, 
who,  in  fact,  found  her  unrecognizable.  Anna  ex- 
pended six  thousand  francs  a  year  on  herself,  the  sum 
total  of  the  household  expenses  of  Monsieur  de  la 
Baudraye.  In  the  space  of  twenty-four  hours,  the 
two  friends  exchanged  a  great  many  confidences ; 
and  the  Parisienne,  finding  herself  superior  to  the 


Il6  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

phoenix  of  the  Chamarolles  institute,  displayed  for 
her  provincial  friend  those  kindnesses,  those  atten- 
tions, in  explaining  to  her  certain  things,  which 
were  for  Dinah  so  many  more  wounds ;  for  the 
provincial  recognized  that  the  superiorities  of  the 
Parisienne  were  all  on  the  surface,  whilst  her  own 
we/e  forever  buried. 

After  Anna's  departure,  Madame  de  la  Baudraye, 
then  twenty-two  years  of  age,  fell  into  a  boundless 
despair. 

"What  is  it  that  troubles  you  ?"  said  Monsieur 
de  Clagny  to  her,  seeing  her  so  cast  down. 

"  Anna,"  she  replied,  "  learned  to  live  while  1 
was  learning  to  suffer — " 

There  was  taking  place,  in  fact,  in  the  household 
of  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  a  tragi-comedy  that  was 
in  harmony  with  her  struggles  with  fortune,  with 
her  successive  transformations,  of  which  Monsieur 
de  Clagny  alone,  after  the  Abbe  Duret,  knew  any- 
thing, when  Dinah,  through  lack  of  occupation, 
through  vanity  perhaps,  revealed  to  him  the  secret 
of  her  anonymous  glory. 


Although  the  alliance  of  verse  and  of  prose  is 
truly  monstrous  in  French  literature,  there  are, 
nevertheless,  exceptions  to  this  rule.  This  history- 
will  offer,  then,  one  of  those  two  violations  which, 
in  these  studies,  will  be  committed  against  the  tradi- 
tions of  fiction  ;  for,  to  obtain  some  knowledge  of 
the  inward  struggles  which  might  excuse  Dinah 
without  absolving  her,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
analyze  a  poem,  the  fruit  of  her  profound  despair. 

Arrived  at  the  end  of  her  patience  and  of  her 
resignation  by  the  departure  of  the  Vicomte  de 
Chargeboeuf,  Dinah  followed  the  advice  of  the  good 
Abbe  Duret,  who  counselled  her  to  convert  her  evil 
thoughts  into  poetry  ;  which  may  perhaps  explain 
certain  poets. 

"It  will  happen  to  you  as  it  does  to  those  who 
rhyme  in  epitaphs  or  elegies  on  those  whom  they 
have  lost ; — sorrow  will  be  calmed  in  the  heart  in 
proportion  as  the  Alexandrines  boil  in  the  head." 

This  strange  poem  stirred  up  a  revolution  in  the 
departments  of  the  Allier,  of  the  Nievre  and  of  the 
Cher,  happy  to  possess  a  poet  capable  of  contend- 
ing with  the  Parisian  celebrities.  PAQUITA  la 
("7) 


Il8  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

SEVILLANE,  by  Jan  Diaz,  was  published  in  the 
£cho  du  Morvan,  a  species  of  review  which  con- 
tended for  eighteen  months  against  the  provincial 
indifference.  Some  intelligent  spirits  in  Nevers  pre- 
tended that  Jan  Diaz  had  wished  to  ridicule  the 
young  school  that  was  then  producing  its  eccentric 
poetry,  energetic  and  full  of  figures,  in  which  great 
effects  were  obtained  by  outraging  the  muse  under 
the  pretext  of  fantasies  German,  English  and 
Romanic. 
The  poem  commenced  with  this  song  : 

If  you  but  knew  the  land  of  Spain, 

Its  balmy  field  and  scented  plain, 

Its  pleasant  nights  and  glowing  days, 

Of  love,  of  sky,  of  fatherland, 

Oh  !  mournful  Neustrian  maiden  band 

You  ne'er  again  would  speak  in  praise. 

The  men  have  other  natures  there 
Than  those  who  breathe  our  chilly  air  ! 
Ah  !  there,  from  eve  till  daylight's  dawn, 
With  rhythmic  dance  resounds  the  lawn 
To  Andalusia's  ardent  fair, 
In  satin  slippers,  gathered  there. 

Yourselves  the  first  with  shame  to  burn 
At  your  own  dances  '  uncouth  turn, 
Your  carnival  cold,  a  tawdry  fete 
But  gives  your  cheeks  a  bluish  shade, 
The  dancers,  sunk  in  mud,  parade 
With  horse-hide  shod,  at  clumsy  gait. 

'Twas  in  a  gloomy  den,  to  girls  attentive,  pale, 

Paquita  did  these  songs  recite  ; 
In  that  Rouen  so  black,  whose  countless  steeples  frail 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  1 19 

With  jagged  teeth  the  tempests  bite ; 
In  that  Rouen  so  vile,  uproarious,  mad.     .     . 


In  a  magnificent  description  of  Rouen,  which 
Dinah  had  never  seen,  executed  with  that  fictitious 
brutality  which  dictated  later  so  much  Juvenal-like 
poetry,  life  in  the  manufacturing  cities  was  con- 
trasted with  the  careless  life  of  Spain,  the  love  of 
the  heavens  and  of  human  beauties  with  the  em- 
ployment of  machinery,  in  short,  poetry  with  mer- 
cantile speculation.  And  Jan  Diaz  explained  the 
horror  of  Paquita  for  Normandy  by  saying: 

Beneath  Seville's  blue  sky,  Paquita  saw  the  day, 

Where  evening's  breezes  scent  the  air  ; 
At  thirteen  years,  the  city  owned  her  queenly  sway, 

And  all  desired  her  love  to  share. 
For  her  three  toreadors  in  fatal  combat  fell ; 

The  victor's  prize  for  which  they  fought, 
A  kiss  from  her  fair  lips,  a  single  kiss,  mark  well, 

That  all  Seville  so  eager  sought. 

The  sketch  of  the  portrait  of  this  young  Spanish 
girl  has  served  since  for  so  many  courtesans  in  so 
many  pretended  poems,  that  it  would  be  wearisome 
to  reproduce  here  the  hundred  verses  of  which  it 
was  composed.  But,  to  judge  of  the  hardihood 
which  Dinah  had  permitted  herself,  it  will  be  suffi- 
cient to  give  the  conclusion.  According  to  the 
ardent  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  Paquita  was  so 
especially  created  for  love  that  she  could  with  dif- 
ficulty find  cavaliers  worthy  of  her;  for, 


120  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

in  her  voluptuous  mood, 

'Twere  plain  that  all  must  find  defeat, 

When  at  love's  festal  board,  afire  with  passion  lewd, 
She  had  but  just  assumed  her  seat. 


But  spite  of  all,  her  joyous  Seville  home  she  spurned 
Its  orange  groves  and  woodlands  fair, 

A  Norman  soldier's  love  her  ardent  soul  returned, 
He  led  her  off  his  hearth  to  share. 

Nor  mourned  she  Andalusia,  of  its  queen  bereft ; 
Her  soldier  all  her  life  engrossed. 


One  day  to  Russia  he  was  called,  his  love  he  left, 
And  joined  the  mighty  Emperor's  host. 

Nothing  could  be  more  delicate  than  the  painting 
of  the  farewells  of  the  fair  Spaniard  and  of  the  Nor- 
man captain  of  artillery,  who,  in  all  the  delirium  of 
a  passion  rendered  with  a  depth  of  feeling  worthy 
of  Byron,  exacted  from  Paquita  a  promise  of  abso- 
lute faithfulness,  in  the  cathedral  of  Rouen,  at  the 
altar  of  the  Virgin, 

Though  virgin,  she  is  woman  too,  and  ne'er  forgives 
The  treachery  of  love  forsworn. 

A  large  portion  of  the  poem  was  consecrated  to 
the  painting  of  the  sufferings  of  Paquita,  alone  in 
Rouen,  waiting  for  the  end  of  the  campaign  ;  she 
writhed  at  the  bars  of  her  window  on  seeing  the 
joyous  couples  pass  by,  she  confined  her  love  in  her 
heart  with  an  energy  which  devoured  her,  she  lived 
on  narcotics,  she  expended  herself  in  visions  ! 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  12 1 

Though  death  had  hovered  near,  she  ne'er  forgot  her  vows, 

Then  when  her  warrior  sought  her  side, 
Although  a  year  had  sped,  he  found  his  lovely  spouse 

Still  worthy  of  his  love  and  pride. 
But  Russia's  cold  had  blanched  his  cheeks,  and  chilled  his 
bones, 

E'en  to  the  very  marrow's  core, 
And  sadly  answered  he  his  lover's  tender  tones. 

The  whole  poem  had  been  conceived  for  this 
situation,  developed  with  an  energy,  an  audacity, 
which  justified  the  Abbe  Duret  a  little  too  strongly. 
Paquita,  in  recognizing  the  limits  within  which  love 
ends,  did  not  throw  herself,  like  HeloTse  and  Juliette, 
into  the  infinite,  into  the  ideal;  no,  she  went,  which 
is  perhaps  atrociously  natural,  into  the  path  of  vice, 
but  without  any  grandeur,  for  lack  of  material,  for  it 
is  difficult  to  find  in  Rouen  those  who  are  sufficiently 
passionate  to  place  a  Paquita  amid  surroundings  of 
luxury  and  elegance.  This  frightful  realism,  re- 
lieved by  a  sombre  poetry,  had  dictated  some  of 
those  pages  which  modern  poetry  abuses,  and  which 
are  somewhat  too  much  like  those  flayed,  anatomi- 
cal figures  which  the  artists  call  ecorches.  By  a 
return  touched  with  philosophy,  the  poetess,  after 
having  depicted  the  infamous  dwelling  in  which  the 
Andalusian  ended  her  days,  returned  to  the  song  of 
the  opening : 

But  years  have  bowed  Paquita,  she  is  wrinkled  now, 
And  yet  'twas  she  who  sang  these  songs  : 

If  you  but  knew  the  land  of  Spain, 

Its  balmy  field  and  scented  plain, — etc 


122  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

The  sombre  energy  which  characterized  this  poem 
of  about  six  hundred  verses,  and  which,  if  it  be  per- 
mitted to  borrow  this  word  from  the  painters,  made 
a  strong  setting-off  for  two  seguidillas,  like  those 
which  commenced  and  ended  the  work,  this  mas- 
culine expression  of  an  inexpressible  pain,  terrified 
the  woman  whom  three  departments  admired 
under  the  black  coat  of  the  anonymous  writer.  Even 
while  tasting  the  intoxicating  delights  of  success, 
Dinah  feared  the  malice  of  the  provinces,  in  which 
more  than  one  woman,  in  case  of  any  indiscretion, 
would  be  quick  to  perceive  some  relations  between 
the  author  and  Paquita.  Then  she  reflected  ;  she 
shivered  with  shame  at  the  thought  of  having  demon- 
strated some  of  her  troubles. 

"  Do  nothing  more,"  said  the  Abbe  Duret  to  her, 
"  you  would  be  no  longer  a  woman.  You  would  be 
a  poet." 

Jan  Diaz  was  sought  for  at  Moulins,  at  Nevers,  at 
Bourges  ;  but  Dinah  was  undiscoverable.  That  she 
might  not  be  thought  ill  of,  in  case  some  fatal 
accident  should  reveal  her  name,  she  wrote  a  charm- 
ing poem,  in  two  parts,  on  The  Oak  of  the  Mass,  a 
Nivernais  tradition  to  this  effect.  One  day  the 
people  of  Nevers  and  those  of  Saint-Saulge,  at  war 
with  each  other,  set  off  in  the  dawn  to  deliver  a 
mortal  battle  against  each  other  and  encountered  in 
the  forest  of  Faye.  Between  the  two  parties  there 
stood  under  an  oak  a  priest,  whose  attitude,  in  the 
light  of  the  rising  sun,  had  something  so  striking  in 
it  that  the  opposing  hosts,  listening  to  his  orders, 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  123 

heard  the  mass  which  was  celebrated  under  the  oak  ; 
and,  at  the  voice  of  the  Gospel,  they  became  recon- 
ciled to  each  other.  There  is  still  shown  some  kind 
of  an  oak  in  the  forest  of  Faye.  This  poem,  infi- 
nitely superior  to  Paquita  la  Sevillane,  had  far  less 
success.  Since  this  double  essay,  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye,  knowing  herself  a  poet,  had  a  sudden  light- 
ing around  the  forehead,  in  the  eyes,  which  made 
her  more  beautiful  than  formerly.  She  turned  her 
eyes  toward  Paris,  she  aspired  after  glory  and  fell 
back  into  her  hole  of  La  Baudraye,  into  her  daily 
quibbling  with  her  husband,  into  her  own  circle, 
where  the  characters,  the  purposes,  the  discourses, 
were  too  familiar  not  to  become  wearisome  in  the 
end.  If  she  were  able  to  find  in  her  literary  works 
a  distraction  from  her  misfortunes ;  if  poetry  filled 
the  emptiness  of  her  life  with  resounding  echoes,  if  it 
occupied  all  her  powers,  literature  made  her  conceive 
a  hatred  for  the  gray  and  heavy  atmosphere  of  the 
provinces. 

When,  after  the  revolution  of  1830,  the  glory  of 
George  Sand  radiated  throughout  Berri,  many  cities 
envied  La  Chatre  the  privilege  of  having  given  birth 
to  a  rival  to  Madame  de  Stael,  to  Camille  Maupin, 
and  were  sufficiently  disposed  to  honor  the  smallest 
feminine  talents.  Thus  there  were  to  be  seen  at 
that  time  a  good  many  tenth  muses  in  France,  young 
girls  or  young  wives  turned  aside  from  a  peaceful 
life  by  a  semblance  of  glory  !  Strange  doctrines 
were  then  published  on  the  role  which  woman  should 
fill  in  society.     Without  perverting  the  good  sense 


124  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  French  intelligence, 
women  were  then  given  permission  to  express 
ideas,  to  profess  sentiments  which  they  would 
not  have  avowed  a  few  years  previously.  Mon- 
sieur de  Clagny  profited  by  this  moment  of 
license  to  bring  together  in  a  little  i8mo  volume 
printed  by  Desrosiers,  at  Moulins,  the  works  of  Jan 
Diaz.  He  composed  upon  this  young  writer,  so 
early  snatched  away  from  letters,  a  memoir  very 
curious  and  intelligent  for  those  who  knew  the  an- 
swer to  the  enigma,  but  which  had  not  then  in  liter- 
ature the  merit  of  novelty.  These  pleasantries,  ex- 
cellent while  the  incognito  is  preserved,  become 
somewhat  cold  when  the  author  is  revealed  later. 
But,  in  this  relation,  the  notice  of  Jan  Diaz,  son  of  a 
Spanish  prisoner,  and  born  about  1807,  at  Bourges, 
was  not  without  its  chances  of  deceiving  some  day 
the  makers  of  Universal  Biographies.  Nothing  was 
lacking, — neither  the  names  of  the  professors  of  the 
college  at  Bourges,  nor  those  of  the  condisciples  of 
the  deceased  poet,  such  as  Lousteau,  Bianchon  and 
other  celebrated  Berruyers  who  were  considered  to 
have  known  him  as  a  melancholy  dreamer,  betray- 
ing a  precocious  disposition  for  poetry.  An  elegy 
entitled  Tristesse,  written  at  college,  the  two  poems 
of  Paquita  la  Sevillane  and  the  Chene  de  la  Messe, 
three  sonnets,  a  description  of  the  cathedral  of 
Bourges  and  of  the  hotel  of  Jacques  Cceur,  finally  a 
novel  called  Carola,  given  as  a  work  during  which 
he  had  been  surprised  by  death,  formed  the  literary 
baggage  of  the  defunct,  whose  last  moments,  filled 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  125 

with  poverty  and  despair,  were  calculated  to  wring 
the  hearts  of  all  sensitive  beings  of  the  Nievre,  of 
the  Bourbonnais,  of  the  Cher  and  of  the  Morvan, 
where  he  had  expired,  near  Chateau-Chinon,  un- 
known of  all,  even  of  her  whom  he  loved  ! — Of 
this  little  yellow  volume,  two  hundred  copies  were 
printed,  of  which  a  hundred  and  fifty  were  sold, 
about  fifty  for  each  department.  This  average  of 
sensitive  and  poetic  souls  in  those  departments  of 
France  is  such  as  to  refresh  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
authors  on  the  furia  Francese,  which  in  our  days,  is 
exercised  much  more  upon  interests  than  upon 
books.  Monsieur  de  Clagny  having  been  thus 
liberal,  for  it  was  he  who  signed  the  memoir,  Dinah 
preserved  seven  or  eight  copies  wrapped  in  foreign 
journals  which  had  noticed  this  publication.  Twenty 
copies  sent  to  the  journals  of  Paris  were  lost  in  the 
gulf  of  the  publishing  offices.  Nathan,  duped,  as 
well  as  several  Berrichons,  wrote  upon  this  great 
man  an  article  in  which  he  'found  in  him  all  the 
qualities  which  are  usually  attributed  to  those  who 
are  buried.  Lousteau,  made  prudent  by  his  college 
comrades,  who  could  remember  no  Jan  Diaz,  waited 
for  news  from  Sancerre,  and  heard  that  Jan  Diaz 
was  the  pseudonym  of  a  woman.  In  the  arrondisse- 
ment  of  Sancerre,  there  was  a  great  enthusiasm  for 
Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  in  whom  the  future  rival 
of  George  Sand  was  seen.  From  Sancerre  to 
Bourges,  the  poem  was  lauded,  was  exalted,  though 
at  another  time  it  would  certainly  have  been  de- 
nounced.    The   public   of  the    provinces,    like    all 


126  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

French  publics  perhaps,  has  but  little  fondness  for 
the  passion  of  the  King  of  the  French,  the  safe 
middle  ground  ; — it  elevates  you  to  the  skies  or 
plunges  you  in  the  mire. 

At  this  period,  the  good  old  Abbe  Duret,  the 
counsellor  of  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  was  dead  ;  if 
he  had  been  living,  he  could  certainly  have  prevented 
her  from  giving  herself  to  publicity.  But  three 
years  of  labor  and  of  living  unknown  weighed  upon 
Dinah's  heart,  and  she  substituted  the  uproar  of 
glory  for  all  her  deceived  ambitions.  Poetry  and  the 
dreams  of  fame,  which,  since  her  meeting  with  Anna 
Grossetete  had  lulled  her  griefs,  no  longer  sufficed, 
after  1830,  for  the  activity  of  this  sick  heart.  The 
Abbe  Duret,  who  spoke  of  the  world  when  the 
voice  of  religion  was  powerless,  the  Abbe  Duret, 
who  comprehended  Dinah,  who  painted  for  her 
a  beautiful  future  in  saying  to  her  that  God 
would  recompense  all  sufferings  nobly  supported, 
this  kindly  old  man  could  no  longer  interpose  between 
a  fault  to  be  committed  and  his  beautiful  penitent, 
whom  he  called  his  daughter.  This  wise  and  aged 
priest  had  more  than  once  endeavored  to  enlighten 
Dinah  upon  the  character  of  Monsieur  de  la  Bau- 
draye, saying  to  her  that  this  man  was  capable  of 
hating ;  but  women  are  not  disposed  to  recognize  a 
strength  in  feeble  beings,  and  hatred  is  a  too  con- 
stant action  not  to  be  a  living  force.  When  she 
found  her  husband  profoundly  indifferent  in  love, 
Dinah  refused  him  the  faculty  of  hating. 

"  Do  not  confuse  hatred  and  vengeance,"  said  the 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  127 

abbe  to  her,  "they  are  two  very  different  senti- 
ments ; — one  is  that  of  the  little  souls,  the  other  is 
the  effect  of  a  law  which  the  great  souls  obey.  God 
avenges  Himself,  and  does  not  hate.  Hatred  is  the 
vice  of  narrow  souls,  they  feed  it  with  all  their  little- 
nesses, they  make  of  it  the  pretext  of  their  low 
tyrannies.  Therefore  carefully  avoid  wounding 
Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  ;  he  would  forgive  you  a 
fault,  for  he  would  find  a  profit  in  it,  but  he  would 
be  softly  implacable  if  you  should  touch  him  at  the 
spot  where  Monsieur  Milaud  de  Nevers  so  cruelly 
hit  him,  and  life  would  no  longer  be  possible  for 
you." 

Now,  at  the  moment  when  the  Nivernais,  the  San- 
cerrois,  the  Morvans,  the  Berrichons,  were  all  filled 
with  pride  because  of  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  and 
were  celebrating  her  under  the  name  of  Jan  Diaz, 
the  little  La  Baudraye  received  a  mortal  stroke  from 
this  glory.  He  alone  knew  the  secrets  of  the  poem  of 
Paquita  la  Sevillane.  When  this  terrible  work  was 
discussed,  every  one  said  of  Dinah  :  "  Poor  woman  ! 
poor  woman  !  "  The  women  were  happy  to  be  able 
to  pity  her  who  had  so  much  oppressed  them,  and 
never  had  Dinah  appeared  greater  in  the  eyes  of  the 
country.  The  little  old  man,  now  more  yellow, 
more  wrinkled,  more  debilitated  than  ever,  made  no 
sign  ;  but  Dinah  occasionally  surprised  his  eyes 
fixed  upon  her  with  a  venomous  chill  which  contra- 
dicted his  redoubled  politeness  and  softness  with  her. 
She  ended  by  discovering  what  she  thought  was  a 
simple  household  disagreement ;  but,  in  coming  to 


128  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

an  explanation  with  the  insect,  as  Monsieur  Gravier 
called  him,  she  was  conscious  of  the  chill,  the  hard- 
ness, the  impassibility  of  steel ; — she  let  herself  be 
carried  away,  she  reproached  him  for  her  life  of  the 
past  eleven  years  ;  she  made — with  the  intention  of 
making  it — what  the  women  call  a  scene  ;  but  the 
little  La  Baudraye  remained  in  his  armchair,  his  eyes 
closed,  and  listened  without  losing  his  calmness. 
And  the  dwarf  had,  as  always,  the  best  of  his  wife. 
Dinah  comprehended  that  she  had  been  in  the  wrong 
to  write ; — she  promised  herself  never  to  make 
another  verse,  and  she  kept  her  word.  There- 
fore was  there  a  desolation  among  all  the  Sancerrois. 

"  Why  does  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  compose  no 
more  verses  ?  "  Was  the  cry  of  all  the  world. 

At  this  period,  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  had  no 
longer  any  enemies,  everyone  pressed  to  see  her, 
not  a  week  went  by  without  there  being  new  pres- 
entations. The  wife  of  the  president  of  the  tribunal, 
an  august  bourgeoise  nee  Popinot-Chandier,  had  told 
her  son,  a  young  man  of  twenty-two,  to  go  to  La 
Baudraye  to  pay  his  court,  and  complimented  herself 
on  seeing  her  Gatien  in  the  good  graces  of  this 
superior  woman.  The  phrase  femme  superieure  had 
replaced  the  grotesque  surname  of  Sappho  of  Saint- 
Satur.  The  president's  wife,  who  during  nine  years 
had  directed  the  opposition  against  Dinah,  was  so 
pleased  to  see  her  son  well  received,  that  she  said 
an  infinite  amount  of  good  of  the  Muse  of  Sancerre. 

"  After  all,"  she  cried,  replying  to  a  tirade  from 
Madame  de  Clagny,  who  hated  to  the  death  the 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  129 

alleged  mistress  of  her  husband,  "she  is  the  most 
beautiful  woman  and  the  most  intellectual  in  all 
Berri !  " 

After  having  rolled  in  so  many  thickets,  after  hav- 
ing thrown  herself  into  a  thousand  different  paths, 
after  dreaming  of  love  in  its  splendor,  after  breath- 
ing the  sufferings  of  the  blackest  dramas,  finding  in 
them  that  the  sombre  pleasures  are  bought  cheaply, 
so  fatiguing  had  the  monotony  of  her  life  become, 
that  one  day  Dinah  fell  into  the  ditch  which  she  had 
sworn  to  avoid.  On  seeing  Monsieur  de  Clagny 
continually  sacrificing  himself,  refusing  to  be  advo- 
cate-general at  Paris,  where  family  ties  called  him, 
she  said  to  herself:  "  He  loves  me!"  She  over- 
came her  repugnance  and  appeared  to  be  willing  to 
crown  so  faithful  a  constancy.  It  was  to  this  impulse 
of  generosity  in  her  that  Sancerre  owed  the  coalition 
in  favor  of  Monsieur  de  Clagny  which  was  brought 
about  at  the  elections.  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  had 
dreamed  of  following  to  Paris  the  deputy  of  San- 
cerre. But,  notwithstanding  the  most  solemn  prom- 
ises, the  hundred  and  fifty  votes  given  to  the 
adorer  of  the  fair  Dinah,  who  wished  to  place  the 
simar  of  keeper  of  the  seals  on  the  shoulders  of  this 
defender  of  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  changed  them- 
selves into  an  imposing  minority  of  fifty  votes.  The 
jealousy  of  the  president,  Boirouge,  the  hatred  of 
Monsieur  Gravier,  who  dreaded  the  preponderating 
influence  of  the  candidate  in  Dinah's  heart,  were 
made  the  most  of  by  a  young  sous-prefet  who,  for 
this,  the  doctrinaires  caused  to  be  named  prefect. 
9 


130  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  I  shall  never  console  myself,"  he  said  to  one  of 
his  friends  on  leaving  Sancerre,  "for  not  having 
been  able  to  please  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  my 
triumph  would  have  been  complete — " 

This  domestic  life  inwardly  so  tormented,  pre- 
sented a  calm  exterior,  two  beings,  badly  mated  but 
resigned,  I  know  not  what  of  decency,  of  order, 
this  falsehood  which  society  requires,  but  which 
weighed  on  Dinah  like  an  insupportable  harness. 
Why  did  she  wish  to  take  off  her  mask  after  having 
worn  it  for  twelve  years  ?  Whence  came  this  weari- 
ness when  each  day  augmented  her  hope  of  being 
left  a  widow?  If  all  the  phases  of  this  existence 
have  been  followed,  the  different  deceptions  to 
which  Dinah — like- a  great  many  women,  moreover, 
— had  lent  herself,  may  be  readily  comprehended. 
From  the  desire  of  ruling  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye, 
she  had  passed  to  the  hope  of  being  a  mother.  Be- 
tween the  first  discussions  of  the  household  arrange- 
ments and  the  sad  knowledge  of  her  fate,  quite  a  pe- 
riod of  time  had  elapsed.  Then,  when  she  wished  to 
console  herself,  the  consoler,  Monsieur  de  Charge- 
boeuf,  had  gone  away.  The  enthusiasm,  the  carrying 
away,  which  brings  about  the  faults  of  the  greater 
number  of  women,  had  then  been  wanting  for  her  up 
to  this  time.  If  there  are,  in  fact,  women  who  go 
straight  to  a  fault,  are  there  not  a  great  many 
of  them  who  cling  to  a  number  of  hopes,  and  who 
only  arrive  there  after  having  wandered  in  a  lab- 
yrinth of  secret  misfortunes  ?  Such  was  Dinah. 
She  was  so  little  disposed  to  be  false  to  her  duty, 


THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  1 31 

that  she  did  not  love  Monsieur  de  Clagny  enough  to 
pardon  him  his  want  of  success.  Her  installation  in 
the  Chateau  d'Anzy,  the  arrangement  of  her  collec- 
tions, of  her  curiosities,  which  received  a  new  value 
from  this  magnificent  and  grandiose  frame  which 
Philibert  Delorme  seemed  to  have  built  for  this 
museum,  occupied  her  for  some  months  and  per- 
mitted her  to  meditate  one  of  those  resolutions  which 
surprise  the  public,  from  whom  the  motives  are  hid- 
den, but  who  frequently  discover  them  by  dint  of 
gossiping  and  supposing. 

The  reputation  of  Lousteau,  who  was  reputed  to 
be  a  man  of  gallantry  because  of  his  liaisons  with 
actresses,  attracted  Madame  de  la  Baudraye ; — 
she  wished  to  make  his  acquaintance,  she  read  his 
works  and  developed  a  passion  for  him,  less  perhaps 
because  of  his  talent  than  because  of  his  success 
with  women  ;  she  invented,  in  order  to  bring  him 
into  the  country,  the  obligation  under  which  San- 
cerre  lay,  of  electing  in  the  coming  elections  one  of 
the  two  celebrities  of  the  department.  She  caused 
the  illustrious  physician  to  be  written  to  by  Gatien 
Boirouge,  who  claimed  to  be  a  cousin  of  Bianchon 
through  the  Popinots ;  then  she  instigated  an  old 
friend  of  the  late  Madame  Lousteau  to  reawaken  the 
ambition  of  the  writer  by  informing  him  of  the  in- 
tention of  certain  personages  in  Sancerre  to  choose 
their  deputy  among  the  celebrated  men  in  Paris. 
Wearied  with  her  mediocre  surroundings,  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye  was  finally  going  to  see  some  truly 
superior  men,  she  would    be    able  to  ennoble  her 


132  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

fault  with  all  the  splendor  of  glory.  Neither  Lous- 
teau  nor  Bianchon  replied  :  perhaps  they  were  wait- 
ing for  the  vacations.  Bianchon,  who,  in  the  pre- 
ceding year,  had  obtained  his  chair  after  a  brilliant 
competition,  could  not  leave  his  course  of  instruc- 
tion. 

In  the  month  of  September,  in  the  midst  of  the 
vintage,  the  two  Parisians  arrived  in  their  natal 
country,  and  found  themselves  plunged  into  the  ab- 
sorbing occupation  of  the  harvest  of  1836 ;  there 
was  therefore  no  manifestation  of  public  opinion  in 
their  favor. 

"  We  shall  have  to  return  them  their  money," 
said  Lousteau  to  his  compatriot,  in  the  language  of 
the  box-office. 

In  1836,  Lousteau,  fatigued  with  sixteen  years  of 
struggle  in  Paris,  worn  as  much  by  pleasure  as  by 
poverty,  by  work  and  by  errors,  appeared  to  be 
forty-eight  years  of  age,  although  he  was  but  thirty- 
seven.  Already  bald,  he  had  assumed  a  Byronian 
air  in  harmony  with  his  anticipated  ruins,  with  the 
ravines  traced  in  his  face  by  the  abuse  of  the  wine 
of  Champagne.  He  charged  the  stigmata  of  de- 
bauchery to  the  account  of  the  literary  life,  accusing 
the  press  of  being  murderous,  he  caused  it  to  be 
understood  that  it  devoured  great  talents,  so  as  to 
give  a  value  to  his  own  lassitude.  He  thought  it  nec- 
essary to  exaggerate  in  his  own  country  both  his 
false  disdain  for  life  and  his  sham  misanthropy. 
Nevertheless,  his  eyes  sometimes  still  blazed,  like 
volcanoes  that  have  been  thought  extinct ;  and  he 


THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  1 33 

endeavored  to  replace  by  the  elegance  of  his  appear- 
ance all  that  was  lacking  in  him  of  youthfulness  in 
the  eyes  of  women. 

Horace  Bianchon,  decorated  with  the  Legion  of 
Honor,  stout  and  large,  like  a  popular  physician, 
had  a  patriarchal  air,  thick,  fair  hair,  a  rounded  fore- 
head, the  chest  and  shoulders  of  a  worker  and  the 
calm  of  a  thinker.  This  physiognomy,  sufficiently 
unpoetical,  was  admirably  calculated  to  set  off  his 
light  compatriot. 

These  two  illustrious  personages  remained  un- 
known for  a  whole  morning  at  the  inn  where  they 
had  alighted,  and  Monsieur  de  Clagny  only  learned 
of  their  arrival  by  chance.  Madame  de  la  Baudraye, 
in  despair,  sent  Gatien  Boirouge,  who  owned  no 
vines,  to  invite  the  two  Parisians  to  come  and 
spend  a  few  days  at  the  Chateau  d'Anzy.  For  a 
year  past,  Dinah  had  been  acting  the  chatelaine, 
and  spending  the  winters  only  at  La  Baudraye. 
Monsieur  Gravier,  the  procureur  du  roi,  the  presi- 
dent and  Gatien  Boirouge  offered  to  the  two  cele- 
brated men  a  banquet  at  which  were  present  the 
most  literary  personages  of  the  town.  On  learning 
that  the  beautiful  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  was  Jan 
Diaz,  the  two  Parisians  allowed  themselves  to  be 
conducted  to  the  Chateau  d'Anzy,  for  a  visit  of 
three  days,  in  a  charabancs  which  Gatien  drove 
himself.  This  young  man,  full  of  illusions,  repre- 
sented Madame  de  la  Baudraye  to  the  two  Parisians 
not  only  as  the  most  beautiful  woman  of  the  Sancer- 
rois,  as  a  superior  woman  and  one  capable  of  inspir- 


134  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

ing  jealousy  in  George  Sand,  but  still  more  as  a 
woman  who  would  produce  the  most  profound  sen- 
sation in  Paris.  Therefore  the  astonishment  of 
Doctor  Bianchon  and  of  the  bantering  feuilletonist 
was  remarkable,  though  repressed,  when  they  per- 
ceived on  the  perron  of  Anzy,  the  chatelaine  dressed 
in  a  light,  black  kerseymere,  with  a  necker- 
chief, like  a  riding-dress  without  a  train  ;  for  they 
recognized  enormous  pretensions  in  this  excessive 
simplicity.  Dinah  wore  a  beret  in  black  velvet  a  la 
Raphael  from  under  which  her  hair  escaped  in  great 
curls.  This  dress  set  in  relief  a  sufficiently  pretty 
figure,  fine  eyes,  handsome  eyelids  almost  withered 
by  the  ennuis  of  the  life  which  we  have  sketched. 
In  Berri,  the  strangeness  of  this  artistic  appearance 
disguised  the  romantic  affectations  of  the  superior 
woman.  When  they  perceived  the  pretty  airs  of 
their  too  agreeable  hostess,  which  were  in  some  sort 
the  pretty  airs  of  soul  and  of  thought,  the  two 
friends  exchanged  a  glance  and  assumed  a  profound- 
ly serious  attitude  to  listen  to  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye,  who  made  to  them  a  studied  allocution  in 
which  she  thanked  them  for  having  come  to  break 
the  monotony  of  her  life.  Dinah  promenaded  her 
guests  around  the  lawn  ornamented  with  great 
baskets  of  flowers  which  displayed  themselves 
before  the  facade  of  Anzy. 

"  How  is  it,"  asked  Lousteauthe  mystifier,  "that 
a  woman  as  beautiful  as  you,  and  who  appears  to  be 
so  superior,  can  remain  in  the  provinces  ?  What  do 
you  do  to  resist  this  life  ?  " 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  1 35 

"  Oh  !  that  is  it,"  said  the  chatelaine.  "  You  do 
not  resist.  A  profound  despair  or  a  stupid  resigna- 
tion, one  or  the  other,  there  is  no  choice,  that  is  the 
tufa  upon  which  our  existence  is  based  and  in  which 
are  absorbed  a  thousand  stagnant  thoughts,  which, 
without  fertilizing  the  earth,  nourish  in  it  the  sickly 
flowers  of  our  barren  souls.  Do  not  think  that  it  is 
lack  of  thought !  Lack  of  thought  leads  to  despair 
or  to  resignation.  Each  woman  then  gives  herself 
up  to  that  which,  according  to  her  character,  seems 
to  her  to  be  a  pleasure.  Some  throw  themselves 
into  preserving  and  into  washing-lyes,  into  domestic 
economy,  into  the  rural  pleasures  of  the  vintage  or 
the  harvest,  into  the  preservation  of  fruits,  into  the 
embroidery  of  fichus,  into  maternal  cares,  into  the 
little  intrigues  of  the  town.  Others  trifle  over  a  per- 
petual piano  which  sounds  like  a  cauldron  at  the  end 
of  the  seventh  year,  and  which  comes  to  end  its 
days,  asthmatic,  at  the  Chateau  d'Anzy.  Some  of 
the  pious  ones  entertain  themselves  with  different 
inventions  concerning  the  word  of  God  : — the  Abbe 
Fritaud  is  compared  with  the  Abbe  Guinard.  You 
play  cards  in  the  evenings,  you  dance  for  twelve 
years  with  the  same  persons,  in  the  same  salons,  at 
the  same  periods.  This  beautiful  life  is  intermingled 
with  solemn  promenades  on  the  Mail,  with  visits  of 
etiquette  between  women  who  ask  you  where  you 
buy  your  dry-goods.  The  conversation  is  bounded 
on  the  south  of  the  intelligence  by  observations  upon 
the  intrigues  hidden  at  the  bottom  of  the  stagnant 
waters  of  provincial  life,  on  the  north  by  the  mar- 


136  THE   MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

riages  talked  of,  on  the  west  by  jealousies,  on  the 
east  by  little,  sharp  words.  Thus,  as  you  see,"  said 
she,  striking  an  attitude,  "  a  woman  is  wrinkled  at 
twenty-nine,  ten  years  before  the  period  fixed  by 
the  prescriptions  of  Doctor  Bianchon,  she  becomes 
red  and  pimpled  also  very  promptly,  and  yellows 
like  a  quince  when  she  is  of  the  yellowing  kind, — 
we  know  some  that  turn  green.  When  we  arrive 
at  this  point,  we  wish  to  justify  our  normal  state. 
We  therefore  attack  with  our  teeth,  sharp  as  those  of 
field-mice,  the  terrible  passions  of  Paris.  We  have 
here  Puritans  against  the  grain  who  tear  up  the 
laces  of  coquetry  and  gnaw  at  the  poetry  of  your 
Parisian  beauties,  who  spatter  the  happiness  of 
others  by  extolling  their  own  nuts  and  their  rusty 
bacon,  by  exalting  their  own  economical  mouse- 
hole,  the  dull  colors  and  the  monastic  perfumes  of 
our  beautiful  Sancerroise  life." 

"  I  admire  this  courage,  madame,"  said  Bianchon. 
"When  you  experience  such  misfortunes,  it  re- 
quires wit  and  spirit  to  make  of  them  virtues." 

Stupefied  by  the  brilliant  manoeuvre  by  which 
Dinah  delivered  the  province  over  to  her  guests, 
whose  sarcasms  were  thus  all  forestalled,  Gatien 
Boirouge  nudged  Lousteau  with  his  elbow,  giving  him 
at  the  same  time  a  look  and  a  smile  which  said  : 
"  Hein  !  did  I  deceive  you  ?  " 

"  But,  madame,"  said  Lousteau,  "  you  prove  to 
us  that  we  are  still  in  Paris.  I  should  like  to  steal 
from  you  that  tirade,  it  would  be  worth  ten  francs 
to  me  in  my  feuilleton." 


ON  THE  PERRON  OF  ANZY 


When  they  perceived  the  pretty  airs  of  their  too 
agreeable  hostess,  which  were  in  some  sort  the  pretty 
airs  of  soul  and  of  thought,  the  two  friends  exchanged 
a  glance  and  asstnncd  a  profoundly  serious  attitude 
to  listen  to  Madame  de  la  Baudrayc,  who  made  to 
them  a  studied  allocution  in  which  site  thanked  them 
for  having  come  to  break  the  monotony  of  her  life. 


,'//./ 


T,«v.-e.  V, 


e,  Vid^l^ 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  137 

"Oh!  monsieur,"  she  replied,  "  mistrust  the 
women  of  the  provinces." 

"  And  why  ?  "  asked  Lousteau. 

Madame  de  la  Baudraye  had  the  cunning,  innocent 
enough  moreover,  to  notify  each  of  these  two  Paris- 
ians, between  whom  she  wished  to  choose  a  van- 
quisher, of  the  trap  in  which  he  would  be  caught, 
thinking  that  at  the  moment  when  he  should  not  see 
it,  she  would  be  the  stronger. 

"You  deride  them  when  you  first  arrive;  then 
when  you  have  lost  the  memory  of  the  Parisian  bril- 
liancy, in  seeing  the  provincial  woman  in  her  sphere, 
you  make  court  to  her,  if  only  for  a  pastime.  You 
whose  passions  have  rendered  you  celebrated,  you 
will  be  the  object  of  attentions  that  will  flatter  you — 
"  Take  care,"  cried  Dinah,  making  a  coquettish  ges- 
ture and  placing  herself  by  these  sarcastic  reflections 
above  the  reach  of  the  ridicule  of  the  province  and 
of  Lousteau.  "  When  a  poor  little  provincial  woman 
conceives  some  eccentric  passion  for  a  superiority, 
for  a  Parisian  wandering  in  the  provinces,  she  makes 
of  it  something  more  than  a  sentiment,  she  finds  in 
it  an  occupation  and  carries  it  through  all  her  life. 
There  is  nothing  more  dangerous  than  the  attach- 
ment of  a  provincial  woman, — she  compares,  she 
studies,  she  reflects,  she  dreams,  she  does  not 
abandon  her  dream,  she  thinks  of  him  whom  she 
loves  when  he  whom  she  loves  no  longer  thinks  of 
her.  Now,  one  of  the  fatalities  which  most  heavily 
weigh  upon  the  woman  of  the  provinces  is  that 
sudden  termination  of  her  passion,  which  is  so  often 


138  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

seen  in  England.  In  the  provinces,  life  maintained 
in  a  state  of  Indian  watchfulness,  compels  a  woman 
to  walk  straight  in  her  track  or  to  leave  it  suddenly, 
like  a  railway  engine  which  encounters  an  obstacle. 
The  strategic  combats  of  passion,  the  coquetries 
which  are  the  half  of  the  Parisienne,  nothing  of  that 
exists  here." 

"  That  is  true,"  said  Lousteau,  "there  are  sur- 
prises in  the  heart  of  the  woman  of  the  provinces, as 
in  certain  toys. 

"Oh!  Mon  Dieu !"  replied  Dinah,  "a  woman 
has  spoken  to  you  three  times  during  a  winter,  she 
has  enclosed  you  in  her  heart  unknown  to  herself ; 
there  comes  a  party  in  the  country,  a  promenade, 
everything  is  said,  or,  if  you  prefer,  everything  is 
done.  This  conduct,  absurd  for  those  who  do  not 
observe,  has  in  it  something  very  natural.  Instead 
of  calumniating  the  woman  of  the  provinces  by  be- 
lieving her  to  be  depraved,  a  poet  like  yourself,  or  a 
philosopher,  an  observer  like  Doctor  Bianchon, 
would  know  how  to  divine  the  marvellous  unpub- 
lished poetry,  in  short,  all  the  pages  of  this  beautiful 
romance  the  denouement  of  which  profits  some  happy 
sub-lieutenant,  some  great  man  of  the  province." 

"  The  women  of  the  provinces  whom  I  have  seen 
in  Paris,"  said  Lousteau,  "were,  in  fact,  sufficiently 
dashing  actresses — " 

"  Dear  me  !  they  are  curious,"  said  the  chatelaine, 
emphasizing  her  word  by  a  slight  movement  of  her 
shoulders. 

"  They  are  like  those  amateurs  who  come  to  the 


THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  1 39 

second  representation,  certain  that  the  piece  will  not 
be  taken  off,"  replied  the  journalist. 

"  What  is  then  the  source  of  your  evils  ?  "  asked 
Bianchon. 

"  Paris  is  the  monster  which  causes  our  griefs," 
replied  the  superior  woman.  "  The  evil  has  a  range 
of  seven  leagues  and  afflicts  the  whole  country. 
The  province  does  not  exist  by  itself.  There  only 
where  the  nation  is  divided  into  fifty  little  states, 
there  each  one  can  have  his  own  physiognomy,  and 
a  woman  there  reflects  the  brilliancy  of  the  sphere 
in  which  she  reigns.  This  social  phenomenon  may 
be  still  seen,  I  have  been  told,  in  Italy,  in  Switzer- 
land and  in  Germany  ;  but  in  France,  as  in  all  other 
countries  with  but  one  capital,  the  levelling  of  man- 
ners and  customs  will  be  the  necessary  consequence 
of  centralization." 

"  Manners,  then,  according  to  you,  will  take  on 
movement  and  originality  only  through  a  federation 
of  French  states  forming  one  sole  empire  ?  "  asked 
Lousteau. 

"  That  is  perhaps  not  to  be  desired,  for  France 
would  still  have  to  conquer  too  much  country,"  said 
Bianchon. 

"England  does  not  know  this  misfortune,"  ex- 
claimed Dinah.  "  London  does  not  exercise  the 
tyranny  which  Paris  causes  to  weigh  upon  France, 
and  for  which  the  French  genius  will  end  by  finding 
a  remedy  ; — but  she  has  something  more  horrible  in 
her  atrocious  hypocrisy,  which  is  a  very  different 
evil!" 


140  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  The  English  aristocracy,"  said  the  journalist, 
who  foresaw  a  Byronian  sally  and  hastened  to  take 
the  word,  "  has  over  us  the  advantage  of  assimilat- 
ing all  superiorities,  it  lives  in  its  magnificent  parks, 
it  comes  to  London  for  two  months  only,  neither  more 
nor  less  ;  it  lives  in  the  provinces,  it  flourishes  in 
them  and  makes  them  flourish." 

"Yes,"  said  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  "  London 
is  the  capital  of  shops  and  of  speculation,  the  govern- 
ment is  made  there.  The  aristocracy  inscribes  itself 
there  only  during  sixty  days,  it  there  takes  its 
orders,  it  inspects  the  government  kitchen,  it  passes 
in  review  its  daughters  to  marry,  and  equipages  to 
sell,  it  says  good-day  and  goes  away  promptly  ; — it 
is  so  little  amusing  that  it  supports  itself  only  for 
the  few  days  called  the  season." 

"  Thus,  in  the  perfidious  Albion  of  the  Constitu- 
tionnet,"  exclaimed  Lousteau,  to  repress  by  an 
epigram  this  nimbleness  of  language,  "there  are 
chances  of  encountering  charming  women  in  all 
points  of  the  kingdom." 

"But  charming  Englishwomen!"  replied  Ma- 
dame de  la  Baudraye,  smiling.  "  Here  is  my  mother, 
to  whom  I  am  going  to  present  you,"  she  said,  seeing 
Madame  Piedefer  coming. 

When  the  presentation  of  the  two  lions  had  been 
made  to  that  ambitious  skeleton  in  the  name  of  a 
woman, which  was  called  Madame  Piedefer,  a  large, 
dry  body,  with  a  pimpled  face,  doubtful  teeth,  dyed 
hair,  Dinah  left  the  Parisians  free  for  a  few 
minutes. 


THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  141 

"  Well,"  said  Gatien  to  Lousteau,  "  what  do  you 
think  of  her  ?  " 

"  I  think  that  the  cleverest  woman  in  Sancerre  is 
quite  honestly  the  greatest  talker,"  replied  the 
feuilletonist. 

"  A  woman  who  wishes  to  see  you  named 
deputy  ! — "  cried  Gatien,  "  an  angel !  " 

"  Forgive  me,  I  forgot  that  you  love  her,"  replied 
Lousteau.  You  will  excuse  the  cynicism  of  an  old 
humbug  like  myself.  Ask  Bianchon,  I  no  longer 
have  any  illusions,  I  say  things  as  they  are.  This 
woman  has  certainly  dried  up  her  mother  like  a 
partridge  exposed  to  a  too  hot  fire." 

Gatien  Boirouge  found  an  opportunity  to  repeat 
to  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  the  feuilletonist's  remark 
during  the  dinner,  which  was  abundant,  if  not 
splendid,  and  during  which  the  chatelaine  was  care- 
ful to  talk  but  little.  This  languor  in  the  con- 
versation revealed  Gatien's  indiscretion.  Etienne 
endeavored  to  restore  himself  to  grace,  but  all  the 
attentions  of  Dinah  were  for  Bianchon.  Neverthe- 
less, about  the  middle  of  the  evening,  the  baroness 
became  gracious  to  Lousteau  again.  Have  you  not 
remarked  how  many  despicable  actions  are  com- 
mitted for  small  causes  ?  Thus  this  noble  Dinah, 
who  did  not  wish  to  give  herself  to  boors,  who  led 
in  the  heart  of  her  province  a  frightful  life  of 
struggles,  of  suppressed  revolts,  of  unpublished 
poetry,  and  who  had  just  ascended,  in  order  to  with- 
draw herself  from  Lousteau,  the  highest  and  most 
precipitous  cliff  of  her  disdain,  who  would  not  have 


142  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

descended  therefrom  if  she  had  seen  this  false  Byron 
at  her  feet  suing  for  mercy,  suddenly  tumbled  down 
from  this  height  when  she  thought  of  her  album. 
Madame  de  la  Baudraye  had  given  herself  over  to 
the  mania  of  autographs  ;  she  possessed  an  oblong 
volume  which  deserved  its  name  all  the  more  that 
two-thirds  of  the  leaves  were  blank.  The  Baronne 
de  Fontaine,  to  whom  she  had  sent  it  for  three 
months,  had  obtained  with  much  trouble  a  line  from 
Rossini,  six  measures  of  Meyerbeer,  the  four  verses 
which  Victor  Hugo  inscribed  in  all  albums,  a  strophe 
of  Lamartine,  a  word  from  Beranger,  Calypso  ne 
pouvait  se  consoler  du  depart  d'Ulysse,  written  by 
George  Sand,  the  famous  verses  upon  the  umbrella  by 
Scribe,  a  phrase  from  Charles  Nodier,  a  horizon  line 
by  Jules  Dupre,  the  signature  of  David  of  Angers, 
three  notes  from  Hector  Berlioz.  Monsieur  de  Clagny 
had  gathered,  during  a  visit  to  Paris,  a  song  by 
Lacenaire,  an  autograph  very  much  sought  after, 
two  lines  from  Fieschi,  and  an  excessively  short 
letter  from  Napoleon,  all  three  of  these  being  pasted 
on  the  vellum  of  the  album.  Monsieur  Gravier, 
during  a  journey,  had  caused  to  write  in  this  album, 
Mesdemoiselles  Mars,  Georges,  Taglioni  and  Grisi, 
the  first  artistes,  as  well  as  Frederick  Lemaitre,  Mon- 
rose,  Bouffe,  Rubini,  Lablanche,  Nourritand  Arnal  ; 
for  he  knew  a  society  of  old  fellows  nursed,  accord- 
ing to  their  own  expression,  in  the  seraglio,  who  pro- 
cured these  favors  for  him.  This  commencement  of 
a  collection  was  all  the  more  precious  to  Dinah  that 
she  was  the  only  possessor  of  an  album  in  a  circle  of 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  143 

ten  leagues  around.  For  the  last  two  years  a  num- 
ber of  young  persons  had  albums  in  which  they 
collected  phrases  more  or  less  absurd  written  by 
their  friends  and  acquaintances.  O  you  who  pass 
your  life  in  gathering  autographs,  primitive  souls 
and  happy,  Hollanders  with  tulips,  you  will  then 
excuse  Dinah  when,  fearing  that  she  could  keep  her 
guests  only  two  days,  she  entreated  Bianchon  to 
enrich  her  treasure  by  a  few  lines,  presenting  it  to 
him. 

The  doctor  made  Lousteau  smile  by  showing  him 
this  thought  upon  the  first  page  : 

That  which  renders  the  people  so  dangerous,  is  that 
it  has  for  its  crimes  an  absolution  in  its  pockets. 

J.-B.  DE  CLAGNY. 

"  Let  us  support  this  man  who  is  courageous 
enough  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  monarchy,"  said 
in  Lousteau's  ear  the  wise  pupil  of  Desplein.  And 
Bianchon  wrote  underneath  : 

That  which  distinguishes  Napoleon  from  a  water- 
carrier  can  only  be  perceived  by  society,  it  has  nothing 
to  do  with  nature.  Thus  democracy,  which  refuses  to 
accept  the  inequality  of  conditions,  is  ceaselessly  appeal- 
ing to  nature. 

H.  Bianchon. 

"  Look  at  the  wealthy  !  "  cried  Dinah  in  stupe- 
faction, "  they  draw  a  piece  of  gold  from  their 
pockets  just  as  the  poor  pull  out  a  farthing. — I  do  not 


144  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

know,"  she  said,  turning  to  Lousteau,  "if  it  would 
not  abuse  hospitality  to  ask  of  you  a  few  stanzas — " 

"Ah!  madame,  you  flatter  me!  Bianchon  is  a 
great  man  ;  but,  I,  I  am  too  obscure  ! — In  twenty 
years  from  now,  my  name  will  be  more  difficult  to 
explain  than  that  of  monsieur  le  procureur  du  roi 
whose  thought,  inscribed  in  your  album,  would  cer- 
tainly indicate  an  unacknowledged  Montesquieu. 
Moreover,  I  should  require  at  least  twenty-four  hours 
to  improvise  some  truly  bitter  reflection  ;  for  I  know 
how  to  depict  only  that  which  I  feel — " 

"  I  should  be  glad  to  have  you  ask  me  for  two 
weeks,"  said  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  graciously, 
offering  him  her  album,  "  I  should  be  enabled  to  keep 
you  so  much  longer." 


i 


The  next  morning,  at  five  o'clock,  the  guests  of 
the  Chateau  d'Anzy  were  on  foot.  The  little  La 
Baudraye  had  organized  for  the  Parisians  a  hunting 
party  ;  less  for  their  pleasure  than  through  his  own 
vanity  as  a  landed  proprietor,  he  was  very  well 
satisfied  to  have  them  measure  his  woodland  and 
traverse  the  twelve  hundred  hectares  of  land  that  he 
dreamed  of  getting  under  culture,  an  undertaking 
that  would  require  some  hundred  thousand  francs, 
but  which  might  increase  the  revenues  of  the  estate 
of  Anzy  from  thirty  to  sixty  thousand  francs. 

"  Do  you  know  why  the  procureur  du  roi  did  not 
wish  to  hunt  with  us?"  said  Gatien  Boirouge  to 
Monsieur  Gravier. 

"Why  he  told  us  that  he  had  to  hold  court  to- 
day, for  the  tribunal  sits  in  criminal  cases,"  replied 
the  receiver  of  taxes. 

"  And  you  believe  that  ?  "  cried  Gatien.  "  Well, 
my  papa  said  to  me  :  '  You  cannot  have  Monsieur 
Lebas  very  early,  for  Monsieur  de  Clagny  has  asked 
his  deputy  to  hold  court.'  " 

"  Ah  !    ah  !  "    said    Gravier,  whose  countenance 

10  (145) 


146  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

changed ;  "  and  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  is  going 
off  to  La  Charite  !  " 

"  But  why  do  you  meddle  in  these  affairs  ?  "  said 
Horace  Bianchon  to  Gatien. 

"  Horace  is  right,"  said  Lousteau.  "  I  do  not  un- 
derstand why  you  occupy  yourselves  so  much  with 
each  other,  you  lose  your  time  for  nothing." 

Horace  Bianchon  looked  at  Etienne  Lousteau  as  if 
to  say  to  him  that  the  malicious  sayings  of  the  feuil- 
leton,  the  smart  speeches  of  the  small  journal  were 
not  understood  in  Sancerre.  As  they  reached  a 
thicket,  Monsieur  Gravier  allowed  the  two  celebrated 
men  and  Gatien  to  make  their  way  into  it,  under 
the  conduct  of  the  guard,  in  a  depression  of  the 
soil. 

"Well,  let  us  wait  for  the  financier,"  said 
Bianchon,  when  the  hunters  had  arrived  at  a  clear- 
ing. 

"  Ah,  well !  if  you  are  a  great  man  in  the  science 
of  medicine,"  replied  Gatien,  "you  are  very  ignor- 
ant in  matters  of  life  in  the  provinces.  You  will 
wait  for  Monsieur  Gravier  ? — Why  he  is  running 
like  a  hare,  notwithstanding  his  little  plump  belly  ; 
he  is  now  at  twenty  minutes  from  Anzy." — Gatien 
drew  out  his  watch. — "  Good  !  he  will  arrive  just  in 
time." 

"Where?" 

"  At  the  chateau,  for  the  dejeuner,"  replied 
Gatien.  "  Do  you  think  that  I  should  be  at  my  ease 
if  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  remained  alone  with 
Monsieur  de  Clagny  ?     Now  there  are  two  of  them, 


THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  147 

they  will  watch  each  other,  Dinah  will  be  well 
guarded." 

"  Ah  !  there  !  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  is  then  to 
make  a  choice  ?  "  said  Lousteau. 

"  Mamma  thinks  so,  but,  for  my  part,  I  am  afraid 
that  Monsieur  de  Clagny  has  succeeded  in  fascinat- 
ing Madame  de  la  Baudraye  ;  if  he  has  been  able  to 
show  her  in  the  deputation  some  prospects  of  his  as- 
suming the  simar  of  keeper  of  the  seals,  he  has  been 
quite  able  to  change  into  the  charms  of  Adonis  his 
skin  of  a  mole,  his  terrible  eyes,  his  dishevelled 
mane,  his  voice  of  a  court  crier  with  a  cold,  his 
leanness  of  a  poor  devil  of  a  poet.  If  Dinah  should 
see  Monsieur  de  Clagny  procureur-general,  she 
might  see  him  as  a  pretty  youth.  Eloquence  has 
great  privileges.  Moreover,  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye is  full  of  ambition,  Sancerre  displeases  her, 
she  dreams  of  Parisian  grandeurs." 

"  But  what  interest  have  you  in  all  this  ?  "  asked 
Lousteau  ;  "  for,  if  she  loves  the  procureur  du  roi, — 
Ah  !  you  think  that  she  will  not  love  him  very  long, 
and  you  hope  to  succeed  him." 

"  You,  you  see,"  said  Gatien,  "you  meet  in 
Paris  as  many  different  women  as  there  are  days  in 
the  year.  But  at  Sancerre  where  there  are  only 
six,  and  where,  out  of  those  six  women,  five  make 
most  preposterous  claims  to  virtue,  when  the  most 
beautiful  one  keeps  you  at  an  enormous  distance  by 
disdainful  glances,  as  if  she  were  a  princess  of  the 
blood  royal,  it  is  quite  permissible  for  a  young  man 
of  twenty-two  to  endeavor  to  discover  this  woman's 


148  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

secrets,  for  then  she  will  be  obliged  to  have  some 
consideration  for  him." 

"  That  is  called  here  consideration,"  said  the 
journalist,  smiling. 

"  I  give  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  credit  for  too 
much  good  taste  to  believe  that  she  would  take  up 
with  that  ugly  monkey,"  said  Horace  Bianchon. 

"Horace,"  said  the  journalist,  "  see  now,  wise 
interpreter  of  human  nature,  let  us  set  a  trap  tor  the 
procureur  du  roi,  we  will  render  a  service  to  our 
friend  Gatien,  and  we  shall  have  something  to  laugh 
at.     I  do  not  like  the  procureurs  du  roi." 

"  You  have  a  just  presentiment  of  your  end," 
said  Horace.     "  But  what  is  to  be  done  ?  " 

"Well,  we  will  relate,  after  dinner,  some  stories 
of  wives  surprised  by  their  husbands,  who  were 
killed,  assassinated,  under  the  most  terrifying  cir- 
cumstances. We  will  see  how  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye and  Monsieur  de  Clagny  take  it." 

"That  is  not  bad,"  said  Bianchon,  "it  will  be 
difficult  for  one  or  the  other  not  to  be  betrayed 
by  a  gesture  or  by  an  observation." 

"lam  acquainted  with  the  director  of  a  publica- 
tion," said  the  journalist,  addressing  Gatien,  "  who, 
with  the  object  of  avoiding  a  sad  destiny  for  himself, 
admits  only  stories  in  which  the  lovers  are  burnt, 
chopped  up,  pounded,  dissected  ;  in  which  the  wives 
are  boiled,  fried,  cooked ;  he  brings  then  these  ter- 
rible stories  to  his  wife  in  the  hope  that  she  will  re- 
main faithful  through  fear ;  he  contents  himself  with 
this  poor  alternative,  the  modest  husband  : — '  Do  you 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  149 

see,  ma  mignonne,  to  what  the  smallest  fault  will 
lead  ! '  he  says  to  her,  translating  the  discourse  of 
Arnolphe  to  Agnes." 

"  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  is  perfectly  innocent, 
this  young  man  sees  double,"  said  Bianchon. 
"  Madame  Piedefer  appeared  to  me  to  be  much  too 
pious  to  invite  to  the  Chateau  d'Anzy  the  lover  of 
her  daughter.  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  would  have 
to  deceive  her  mother,  her  husband,  her  own  femme 
de  chambre  and  that  of  her  mother ;  it  is  too  much 
of  an  undertaking, —  I  acquit  her." 

"  All  the  more  that  her  husband  does  not  quit 
her,"  said  Gatien,  laughing  at  his  pun. 

"  We  shall  certainly  remember  one  or  two  stories 
that  will  make  Dinah  tremble,"  said  Lousteau. 
"Young  man,  and  you,  Bianchon,  I  require  of  you 
a  severe  appearance,  show  yourself  diplomats,  have 
a  freedom  without  affectation,  watch,  without  seem- 
ing to  do  so,  the  faces  of  the  two  criminals,  you 
know  ? — from  underneath,  or  in  the  mirror,  surrep- 
titiously. This  morning  we  are  hunting  the  hare  ; 
this  evening  we  will  hunt  the  procureur  du  roi." 

The  evening  commenced  triumphantly  for  Lous- 
teau, who  returned  to  the  chatelaine  her  album,  in 
which  she  found  this  elegy  : 

SPLEEN 

Some  lines  from  me,  forlorn  and  lost  amid  the  throng, 
The  selfish  crowd,  through  which  I  sadly  grope  along, 

With  ne'er  a  binding  tie  ; 
Who  never  sees  a  single  hope  its  promise  fill, 


150  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

Whose  weakened  eyes  by  gloomy  sorrow  dimmed,  the  ill 
But  not  the  good  espy. 

This  album's  leaves,  by  woman's  finger  lightly  turned, 
From  my  sad  soul  should  not  one  gloomy  shade  have  learned. 

Each  thing  its  place  should  seek  ; 
One  should  of  love,  of  joy,  to  woman  only  tell, 
And  on  the  theme  of  balls  and  silken  raiment  dwell, 

Of  God,  too,  sometimes  speak. 

'Twere  bitter  mockery,  a  heartless,  cruel  jest 
To  say  to  me,  to  me  by  life's  fatigues  distressed : 

Paint  happiness  for  us  ! 
To  one  born  blind  could  we  the  glorious  light  extol, 
Or  of  its  mother  speak  to  some  poor  orphaned  soul, 

And  break  its  heart  not  thus  ? 

When  chill  despair  in  youth  has  closed  your  life  around, 
When  in  the  world  no  heart  that  answers  yours  is  found, 

The  future  holds  no  boon. 
If  when  you  weep,  none  sheds  a  sympathetic  tear, 
If  man  must  die  when  no  loved  being  holds  him  dear, 

Then  must  I  perish  soon. 

Oh  !  pity  me  !  oh !  pity  me  !  oft  I  revile, 

The  Holy  Name  of  God,  reflecting  all  the  while  : 

"  He  has  done  naught  for  me. 
Why  render  praise  to  Him,  what  owe  I  Him,  in  fine? 
He  might  have  made  me  handsome,  rich,  of  noble  line, 

Not  poor  and  vile  to  see  !  " 

£tienne  LOUSTEAU. 

September,  1836,  ChSteau  d'Anzy. 

"  And  you  have  composed  these  verses  since  yes- 
terday?" exclaimed  the  procureur  du  roi  in  a  mis- 
trustful tone. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  151 

"  Oh  !  Afon  Dien,  yes,  while  I  was  hunting,  but 
that  is  done  only  too  often  !  I  should  like  to  have 
done  better  for  madame." 

"  These  verses  are  ravishing,"  said  Dinah,  lifting 
her  eyes  to  Heaven. 

"  They  are  the  expression  of  a  sentiment  unfor- 
tunately too  true,"  replied  Lousteau  with  a  deeply 
mournful  air. 

Every  one  will  suspect  that  the  journalist  had  pre- 
served these  verses  in  his  memory  for  at  least  ten 
years,  for  he  was  inspired  with  them  under  the  Res- 
toration, by  the  difficulty  of  succeeding.  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye  looked  at  the  journalist  with  the  pity 
which  the  misfortunes  of  genius  inspire,  and  Mon- 
sieur de  Clagny,  who  perceived  this  look,  conceived 
a  hatred  for  this  false  Jeune  Malade.  He  set  himself  to 
playing  backgammon  with  the  cure  of  Sancerre.  The 
president's  son  had  the  exceeding  consideration  to 
bring  the  lamp  to  the  two  players,  so  that  the  light 
fell  full  upon  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  who  took  her 
work  ;  she  was  trimming  with  a  woollen  stuff  the 
wicker-work  of  a  paper-basket.  The  three  conspira- 
tors grouped  themselves  around  these  personages. 

"For  whom  are  you  making  that  pretty  basket, 
madame  ?  "  said  the  journalist.  "  For  some  lottery 
for  charity  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  she,  "  I  find  too  much  affectation  in 
charity  exercised  to  the  sound  of  the  trumpet." 

"You  are  very  indiscreet,"  said  Monsieur  Gra- 
vier. 

"Is  there  any  indiscretion,"  said  Lousteau,  "  in 


152  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

asking  who  is  the  happy  mortal  who  will  be  found 
in  possession  of  madame's  basket  ?  " 

"  There  is  no  happy  mortal,"  replied  Dinah,  "  it 
is  for  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye." 

The  procureur  du  roi  looked  askance  at  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye  and  at  the  basket,  as  if  he  were  say- 
ing to  himself  ;  "  There  is  my  paper-basket  lost !  " 

"  How,  madame,  you  are  not  willing  that  we 
should  call  it  happy  to  have  a  pretty  wife,  happy 
that  she  should  make  for  him  such  charming  things 
on  paper-baskets  ?  The  design  is  red  and  black,  a 
la  Robin  des  bois.  If  I  should  marry,  I  should  wish 
that  after  twelve  years  of  household  life,  the  baskets 
that  my  wife  embroiders  should  be  for  me." 

"  Why  should  they  not  be  for  you  ?  "  said  Ma- 
dame de  la  Baudraye,  lifting  to  Etienne  her  fine  gray 
eye  full  of  coquetry. 

"  The  Parisians  believe  in  nothing,"  said  the  pro- 
cureur du  roi  in  a  bitter  tone.  "  The  virtue  of  wives 
is  especially  called  into  question  with  a  frightful 
audacity.  Yes,  for  some  time  now,  the  books  that 
you  make,  messieurs  the  writers,  your  reviews,  your 
plays  at  the  theatres,  all  your  infamous  literature,  is 
based  upon  adultery — " 

"Oh!  monsieur  le  procureur  du  roi,"  replied 
Etienne,  laughing,  "  I  was  permitting  you  to  play  in 
peace,  I  was  not  attacking  you  in  any  way,  and  here 
you  are  bringing  an  action  against  me.  On  the 
faith  of  a  journalist,  I  have  scribbled  more  than  a 
hundred  articles  against  the  authors  of  whom  you 
speak ;  but  1  admit  that,  if  I  have  attacked  them, 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  153 

it  was  to  say  something  that  resembled  criticism. 
Let  us  be  just,  if  you  condemn  them,  we  must  con- 
demn Homer  and  his  Iliad  which  turns  upon  the 
beautiful  Helen ;  we  must  condemn  the  Paradise 
Lost  of  Milton,  Eve  and  her  serpent  appearing  to  me 
to  be  only  a  gentle  little  symbolical  adultery.  We 
must  suppress  the  Psalms  of  David,  inspired  by  the 
excessively  adulterous  loves  of  that  Hebrew  Louis 
XIV.  We  must  throw  into  the  fire  Mithridate,  le 
Tartuffe,  I'Ecole  des  femmes,  PJiedre,  Andromaque,  le 
Manage  de  Figaro,  Dante's  Inferno,  the  Sonnets  of 
Petrarch,  all  of  Jean-Jacques  Rousseau,  the  romances 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  History  of  France,  the  History 
of  Rome,  etc.,  etc.  I  do  not  think  that,  outside  of 
the  Histoire  des  variations  of  Bossuet  and  the  Pro- 
vinciales  of  Pascal,  that  there  are  many  books  to 
read,  if  you  wish  to  strike  out  all  those  in  which 
there  is  a  question  of  women  loved  contrary  to  law." 
"So  much  the  worse!"  said  Monsieur  de  Cla- 

gny- 

Etienne,  piqued  at  the  magisterial  air  which  Mon- 
sieur de  Clagny  assumed,  wished  to  get  him  into  a 
rage  by  one  of  those  cold  mystifications  which  con- 
sist in  defending  opinions  which  you  do  not  hold, 
with  the  object  of  driving  furious  a  poor  man  of 
simple  faith, — a  veritable  journalist  jest. 

"  In  taking  the  political  point  of  view,  which  you 
are  forced  to  take,"  he  continued,  without  noticing 
the  magistrate's  exclamation,  "  in  assuming  the  robe 
of  procureur-general  for  all  periods,  for  every  govern- 
ment has  its  public  minister,  well,  the  Catholic  reli- 


154  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

gion  finds  itself  infected  at  its  very  source  with  a 
flagrant  conjugal  infidelity.  In  the  eyes  of  King 
Herod,  in  those  of  Pilate  who  defended  the  Roman 
government,  the  wife  of  Joseph  could  have  appeared 
to  be  adulterous,  for,  by  her  own  account,  Joseph 
was  not  the  father  of  Christ.  The  pagan  judge  no 
more  admitted  the  immaculate  conception  than  you 
would  admit  to-day  a  similar  miracle,  if  some  new 
religion  were  to  appear  to-day,  basing  itself  upon  a 
miracle  of  this  kind.  Do  you  think  that  a  tribunal 
of  the  correctional  police  would  recognize  a  new 
operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  Now,  who  will  ven- 
ture to  say  that  God  will  not  come  again  to  redeem 
humanity,  is  it  better  to-day  than  it  was  under 
Tiberius  ?  " 

"  Your  reasoning  is  sacrilegious,"  replied  the  pro- 
cureur  du  roi. 

"Agreed,"  said  the  journalist;  "but  I  am  not 
doing  it  with  an  evil  intent.  You  cannot  suppress 
historic  facts.  As  it  seems  to  me,  Pilate  condemning 
Jesus-Christ,  Anytus,  the  organ  of  the  party  of  the 
aristocracy  in  Athens,  demanding  the  death  of 
Socrates,  represent  established  societies,  believing 
themselves  legitimate,  clothed  with  granted  powers, 
obliged  to  defend  themselves.  Pilate  and  Anytus 
were  then  as  logical  as  the  procureurs-generaux  who 
demanded  the  heads  of  the  sergeants  of  La  Rochelle 
and  who  strike  off  to-day  the  heads  of  the  Republi- 
cans armed  against  the  throne  of  July,  and  those  of 
the  innovators  whose  object  is  to  overthrow  for  their 
own  gain  all  societies  under  pretext  of  better  organiz- 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  155 

ing  them.  Before  the  great  families  of  Athens  and 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  Socrates  and  Jesus  were 
criminals ;  for  these  old  aristocracies,  in  opinions 
resembled  those  of  the  Mountain, — suppose  their  fol- 
lowers had  triumphed,  they  would  have  brought 
about  a  slight  '93  in  the  Roman  Empire,  or  in  At- 
tica." 

"  What  do  you  wish  to  get  at,  monsieur  ?  "  said 
the  procureur  du  roi. 

"  At  adultery.  Thus,  monsieur,  a  Buddhist,  while 
smoking  his  pipe,  might  perfectly  well  say  that  the 
religion  of  the  Christians  is  founded  on  adultery  ; 
just  as  we  believe  that  Mohammed  is  an  impostor, 
that  his  Koran  is  another  printing  of  the  Bible  and 
the  Gospels,  and  that  God  never  had  the  slightest 
intention  of  making  of  this  camel-driver,  his  prophet." 

"  If  there  were  in  France  many  men  like  you,  and 
there  are  unfortunately  too  many,  all  government  in 
it  would  be  impossible." 

"  And  there  would  be  no  religion  in  it,"  said  Ma- 
dame Piedefer,  whose  countenance  had  undergone 
some  strange  transformations  during  this  discussion. 

"  You  are  causing  them  infinite  pain,"  said  Bian- 
chon  in  Etienne's  ear,  "  do  not  talk  religion,  you  are 
saying  to  them  things  that  will  overturn  them." 

"  If  I  were  a  writer  or  a  romancer,"  said  Monsieur 
Gravier,  "  I  would  take  the  part  of  the  unfortunate 
husbands.  I  who  have  seen  a  great  many  things, 
and  strange  things,  I  know  that,  among  the  numbers 
of  deceived  husbands,  there  are  those  to  be  found 
whose  attitude  is  not  wanting  in  energy  and  who, 


156  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

in  the  crisis,  are  very  dramatic,  to  employ  one  of 
your  words,  monsieur,"  he  said,  looking  at  Etienne. 

"You  are  right,  my  dear  Monsieur  Gravier," 
said  Lousteau,  "  I  have  never  found  the  deceived 
husbands  ridiculous ;  on  the  contrary,  I  love 
them—" 

"  Do  you  not  find  a  husband  sublime  in  his  con- 
fidence? "  then  said  Bianchon  ;  "  he  believes  in  his 
wife,  he  suspects  nothing,  he  has  an  implicit  faith. 
If  he  has  the  weakness  to  confide  in  his  wife,  you 
deride  him  ;  if  he  is  suspicious  and  jealous,  you  hate 
him  ;  tell  me,  what  is  the  happy  medium  for  an  in- 
telligent man  ?  " 

"If  monsieur  le  procureur  du  roi  had  not  pro- 
nounced so  openly  against  the  immorality  of  those 
recitals  in  which  the  conjugal  charter  is  violated, 
I  would  relate  to  you  a  husband's  vengeance,"  said 
Lousteau. 

Monsieur  de  Clagny  threw  his  dice  in  a  convulsive 
manner  and  did  not  look  at  the  journalist. 

"  How,  really,  a  narration  from  you!"  cried 
Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  "  I  would  scarcely  have 
ventured  to  ask  it  of  you — ' ' 

"It  is  not  mine,  madame,  I  have  not  so  much 
talent ;  it  was — and  with  what  charm  ! — related  to 
me  by  one  of  our  most  celebrated  writers,  the 
greatest  literary  musician  that  we  have,  Charles 
Nodier." 

"Well,  tell  it  to  us,"  replied  Dinah,  "I  have 
never  heard  Monsieur  Nodier,  you  have  no  compari- 
sons to  fear." 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  157 

"A  short  time  after  the  18th  Brumaire,"  said 
Lousteau,  "you  know  that  there  was  a  great  up- 
rising in  Brittany  and  in  La  Vendee.  The  first  con- 
sul desiring  to  pacify  France  quickly,  entered  into 
negotiations  with  the  principal  chiefs  and  set  on  foot 
the  most  vigorous  military  measures,  but,  while 
combining  his  plans  of  campaign  with  the  seductions 
of  his  Italian  diplomacy,  he  called  into  play  the 
Machiavellian  resources  of  the  police,  then  confided 
to  Fouche.  Nothing  of  all  this  was  without  its  use 
for  extinguishing  the  war  lighted  in  the  West.  At 
this  period  a  young  man  belonging  to  the  family  of 
Maille  was  sent  by  the  Chouans  from  Brittany  to 
Saumur  in  order  to  establish  communications  be- 
tween certain  persons  in  the  city  or  in  the  environs 
and  the  chiefs  of  the  royalist  insurrection.  Informed 
of  this  journey,  the  police  of  Paris  had  despatched 
agents  to  capture  the  young  emissary  on  his  arrival 
at  Saumur.  In  fact,  the  ambassador  was  arrested 
on  the  very  day  that  he  landed ;  for  he  came  in  a 
boat,  in  the  disguise  of  a  master  mariner.  But,  as  a 
man  of  execution,  he  had  calculated  all  the  chances 
of  his  enterprise, — his  passport,  his  papers,  were  so 
completely  en  regie  that  those  sent  to  arrest  him 
feared  that  they  had  been  deceived.  The  Chevalier 
de  Beauvoir, — I  now  remember  his  name — had  care- 
fully thought  out  his  role, — he  claimed  his  borrowed 
family  name,  alleged  his  fictitious  domicile,  and  sus- 
tained so  courageously  his  interrogation,  that  he 
would  have  been  set  at  liberty  had  it  not  been  for 
the  species  of  blind  faith  which  the  spies  had  in  their 


158  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

instructions,  unfortunately  too  precise.  When  in 
doubt,  these  alguazils  preferred  to  commit  an  arbi- 
trary act  rather  than  to  allow  to  escape  a  man  to 
whose  capture  the  minister  appeared  to  attach  a 
great  importance.  In  those  days  of  liberty,  the 
agents  of  the  national  power  concerned  themselves 
but  little  with  what  we  call  to-day  legality.  The 
chevalier  was  then  temporarily  imprisoned,  until  the 
superior  authorities  had  come  to  a  decision  in  his 
case.  This  bureaucratic  sentence  was  not  long  de- 
layed. The  police  were  ordered  to  guard  the  pris- 
oner very  closely,  notwithstanding  his  denials.  The 
Chevalier  de  Beauvoir  was  then  transferred  accord- 
ing to  new  orders,  to  the  Chateau  de  1'Escarpe,  the 
name  of  which  indicates  its  situation  with  sufficient 
clearness.  This  fortress,  seated  on  rocky  cliffs  of 
great  height,  has  precipices  for  ditches  ;  it  is  reached 
on  every  side  only  by  rapid  and  dangerous  slopes  ; 
as  in  all  the  ancient  castles,  the  principal  entrance  is 
over  a  drawbridge  and  is  defended  by  a  large  moat. 
The  commandant  of  this  prison,  charmed  to  have 
the  care  of  a  man  of  distinction,  whose  manners 
were  very  agreeable,  who  expressed  himself  mar- 
vellously well  and  appeared  to  be  educated,  qualities 
rare  at  this  epoch,  accepted  the  chevalier  as  a  bene- 
fit from  Providence  ;  he  proposed  to  him  to  remain 
in  L'Escarpe  on  parole,  and  to  make  common  cause 
with  him  against  ennui.  The  prisoner  asked  noth- 
ing better.  Beauvoir  was  a  loyal  gentleman,  but  he 
was  also,  unfortunately,  a  very  handsome  youth. 
He  had  an  attractive  face,  a  resolute  air,  an  engag- 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  159 

ing  conversation,  a  prodigious  strength.  Quick, 
well  set  up,  enterprising,  loving  danger,  he  would 
have  made  an  excellent  chief  of  partisans  ;  they  re- 
quire these  qualities.  The  commandant  assigned 
the  most  commodious  of  the  apartments  to  his  pris- 
oner, admitted  him  to  his  table,  and  at  first  had  noth- 
ing but  praise  for  the  Vendean.  This  commandant 
was  a  Corsican,  and  married ;  his  wife,  pretty  and 
charming,  perhaps  seemed  to  him  somewhat  difficult 
to  guard  ;  in  short,  he  was  jealous  in  his  character 
both  as  a  Corsican  and  as  a  sufficiently  morose  sol- 
dier. Beauvoir  pleased  the  lady,  he  found  her  very 
much  to  his  taste  ;  perhaps  they  fell  in  love  with 
each  other !  In  prison,  love  comes  so  quickly. 
Were  they  guilty  of  some  imprudence  ?  Did  the  sen- 
timent which  they  entertained  for  each  other  pass  the 
limits  of  that  superficial  gallantry  which  is  almost 
one  of  our  duties  toward  women  ?  Beauvoir  never 
frankly  revealed  the  facts  concerning  this  sufficiently 
obscure  point  in  his  history  ;  but  it  is  quite  certain 
that  the  commandant  believed  himself  justified  in 
exercising  extraordinary  rigor  toward  his  prisoner. 
Beauvoir,  imprisoned  in  the  tower,  was  fed  on  black 
bread,  tempered  with  clear  water,  and  chained,  all 
according  to  the  ancient  programme  of  diversions 
provided  for  captives.  The  cell,  situated  under  the 
flat  roof,  was  vaulted  in  hard  stone,  the  walls  were 
of  a  hopeless  thickness,  the  tower  looked  over  the 
precipice.  When  the  poor  Beauvoir  recognized  the 
impossibility  of  escape,  he  fell  into  one  of  those 
moods  which  are  at  once  the  despair  and  the  conso- 


160  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

lation  of  prisoners.  He  occupied  himself  with  those 
nothings  which  become  great  events, — he  counted 
the  hours  and  the  days,  he  served  his  apprentice- 
ship to  that  sorrowful  prisoner's  condition,  was 
thrown  back  upon  himself,  and  learned  to  appreciate 
the  full  value  of  the  air  and  the  sun ;  then,  at  the 
end  of  some  two  weeks,  he  experienced  that  terrible 
illness,  that  fever  of  liberty  which  urges  prisoners 
to  those  sublime  enterprises  the  prodigious  results  of 
which  seem  to  us  inexplicable,  though  real,  and 
which  my  friend  the  doctor — he  turned  toward  Bian- 
chon — would  doubtless  attribute  to  unknown  forces, 
the  despair  of  his  physiological  analysis,  mysteries  of 
the  human  will  before  whose  profundities  science 
is  terrified. — Bianchon  made  a  sign  of  negation. — 
Beauvoir  devoured  his  own  heart,  for  death  alone 
could  set  him  at  liberty.  One  morning  the  turnkey 
whose  duty  it  was  to  bring  the  prisoner's  food,  in- 
stead of  going  away  after  having  given  him  his 
meagre  pittance,  remained  standing  before  him  with 
his  arms  crossed  and  looked  at  him  in  a  singular 
manner.  The  conversation  between  them  was  ordi- 
narily reduced  to  the  briefest  speech,  and  it  was 
never  the  guardian  who  opened  it.  Therefore  the 
chevalier  was  very  much  surprised  when  this  man 
said  to  him  : 

"  '  Monsieur,  you  have  doubtless  your  own  object 
in  view  in  persisting  in  calling  yourself  Monsieur 
Lebrun,  or  citizen  Lebrun.  That  is  none  of  my 
affair,  my  business  is  not  to  verify  your  name. 
Whether  you  call  yourself  Peter  or  Paul,  is  quite 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  161 

indifferent  to  me.  Everyone  to  his  trade,  and  the 
cows  will  be  well  kept.  Nevertheless,  I  know,' 
said  he,  winking  his  eye,  '  that  you  are  Monsieur 
Charles-Felix-Theodore,  Chevalier  de  Beauvoir  and 
cousin  of  Madame  la  Duchesse  de  Maille. — What  do 
you  say  to  that  ?  '  he  added  with  an  air  of  triumph, 
after  a  moment's  silence,  looking  at  his  prisoner. 

"  Beauvoir,  seeing  himself  incarcerated  hard  and 
fast,  did  not  think  that  his  position  could  be  made 
much  worse  by  the  avowal  of  his  true  name. 

"  '  Well,  although  I  am  the  Chevalier  de  Beauvoir, 
what  will  you  gain  by  it  ? '  he  asked. 

"  '  Oh  !  everything  is  gained,'  replied  the  turnkey 
in  a  low  voice.  '  Listen  to  me.  I  have  received 
money  to  facilitate  your  escape  ;  but  wait  an  instant ! 
If  I  am  suspected  of  the  least  thing,  I  shall  be  shot 
very  promptly.  I  have  therefore  said  that  I  will  dip 
into  this  affair  simply  to  earn  my  money.  See, 
monsieur,  take  this  key,'  said  he,  taking  out  of  his 
pocket  a  little  file  ; — '  with  this  you  will  saw  one  of 
your  bars.  Zounds  !  that  will  not  be  very  easy,'  he 
went  on,  indicating  the  narrow  opening  through 
which  the  daylight  entered  the  cell. 

"It  was  a  species  of  opening  made  in  the  wall 
under  the  plinth  which  crowned  the  donjon  wall  on 
the  exterior,  between  two  of  those  heavy  project- 
ing stones  which  seemed  to  support  the  battle- 
ments. 

"  '  Monsieur,'  said  the  jailer,  '  it  will  be  necessary 
to   saw  the   iron   sufficiently  to   allow  you  to  get 
through.' 
ii 


162  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  '  Oh  !  you  can  be  easy,  I  will  get  through/  said 
the  prisoner. 

"  '  And  high  enough  to  leave  something  to  which 
you  can  attach  your  cord,'  resumed  the  turnkey. 

"  '  Where  is  it  ? '  asked  Beauvoir. 

"  '  Here  it  is,'  replied  the  jailer,  throwing  him 
a  knotted  cord.  '  It  has  been  made  of  linen,  so 
as  to  seem  as  if  you  had  made  it  yourself,  and  it  is 
of  sufficient  length.  When  you  come  to  the  last 
knot,  then  let  yourself  drop  gently, — the  rest  is  your 
own  affair.  You  will  probably  find  in  the  neighbor- 
hood a  carriage  all  ready  waiting  and  friends  who 
are  expecting  you.  But  I  know  nothing,  I  don't ! 
1  do  not  need  to  tell  you  that  there  is  a  sentinel  at 
the  right  of  the  tower.  You  will  know  how  to  choose 
a  black  night,  and  to  watch  for  the  moment  when 
the  soldier  on  guard  is  asleep.  You  will  perhaps 
risk  being  fired  at,  but — ' 

"  '  Good  !  good  !  I  shall  not  rot  here,'  cried  the 
chevalier. 

"  '  Ah  !  that  may  be  all  the  same  !  '  replied  the 
jailer,  with  a  stupid  air. 

"  Beauvoir  took  this  for  one  of  those  stupid  reflec- 
tions which  individuals  of  this  kind  make.  The 
hope  of  soon  being  free  rendered  him  so  joyful  that 
he  could  scarcely  pay  attention  to  the  speech  of  this 
man,  a  sort  of  accented  peasant.  He  immediately 
set  to  work,  and  in  the  course  of  the  day  he  suc- 
ceeded in  sawing  the  bars.  Fearing  a  visit  from  the 
commandant,  he  concealed  his  work  by  stopping  up 
the  cuts  with  bread  crumbs,  rolled  in  the  rust  so  as 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  163 

to  give  them  the  color  of  the  iron.  He  tightened  his 
cord  and  set  himself  to  watching  for  a  favorable  night, 
with  that  concentrated  impatience  and  that  profound 
agitation  of  the  soul  which  makes  so  dramatic  the 
life  of  prisoners.  Finally,  on  a  gloomy  night,  a  night 
of  autumn,  he  cut  the  bars  completely  through, 
attached  his  cord  solidly,  crouched  on  the  exterior 
on  the  support  of  the  stone,  clinging  with  one  hand 
to  the  bit  of  iron  which  remained  in  the  opening ; 
and  he  thus  waited  for  the  darkest  hour  of  the  night 
and  the  moment  at  which  the  sentinels  should  be 
most  drowsy.  It  was  drawing  toward  morning. 
He  knew  the  lengths  of  the  reliefs,  the  time  of  the 
rounds,  all  those  things  with  which  prisoners  occupy 
themselves,  even  involuntarily.  He  watched  the 
moment  when  one  of  the  sentinels  was  two-thirds 
through  his  watch  and  had  retired  into  his  sentry- 
box  because  of  the  night  mist.  Certain  of  having 
reunited  all  the  most  favorable  chances  for  his 
escape,  he  then  began  to  descend,  knot  by  knot, 
suspended  between  heaven  and  earth,  and  clinging 
to  his  cord  with  the  grip  of  a  giant.  Everything 
went  well.  At  the  last  knot  but  one,  at  the  moment 
of  letting  himself  drop  to  the  earth,  it  occurred  to 
him,  very  prudently,  to  feel  for  the  ground  with  his 
feet,  and  he  could  find  none.  The  situation  was 
sufficiently  embarrassing  for  a  man  all  in  a  sweat, 
fatigued,  perplexed,  and  in  a  situation  in  which  the 
chances  for  life  and  death  were  even.  He  was  about 
to  drop.  A  slight  cause  prevented  him, — his  hat  fell 
off ;  fortunately  he  listened  for  the  noise  which  its 


164  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

fall  must  make,  and  he  heard  nothing !  The 
prisoner  began  to  conceive  vague  suspicions  as  to  his 
position  ;  he  asked  himself  if  the  commandant  had 
not  set  a  trap  for  him,  but  with  what  object  ?  A 
prey  to  these  uncertainties,  he  almost  concluded  to 
postpone  his  attempt  to  another  night.  Meanwhile, 
he  resolved  to  wait  for  the  uncertain  light  of  the 
twilight ;  an  hour  which  perhaps  would  not  be  alto- 
gether unfavorable  to  his  flight.  His  prodigious 
strength  enabled  him  to  climb  up  the  tower  again  ; 
but  he  was  almost  exhausted  when  he  again  reached 
the  exterior  support,  where  he  sat  watching  every- 
thing like  a  cat  on  the  edge  of  a  roof  gutter. 
Presently,  in  the  feeble  light  of  the  morning,  he 
perceived,  by  agitating  his  cord,  a  little  distance  of 
a  hundred  feet  between  the  last  knot  and  the  pointed 
rocks  of  the  foot  of  the  precipice. 

"  '  Thanks,  commandant ! '  said  he,  with  the  cool- 
ness that  characterized  him. 

"  Then,  after  having  reflected  a  little  on  this  skil- 
ful vengeance,  he  judged  it  necessary  to  re-enter  his 
cell.  He  placed  the  evidences  of  his  work  in  sight 
on  his  bed,  left  his  cord  hanging  so  that  his  fall 
might  be  believed  in  ;  he  concealed  himself  quietly 
behind  the  door  and  waited  for  the  coming  of  the 
perfidious  jailer,  holding  in  his  hand  one  of  the  iron 
bars  which  he  had  sawed  out.  The  jailer,  who  did 
not  fail  to  come  earlier  than  usual  to  gather  up  the 
dead  man's  effects,  opened  the  door,  whistling,  but 
when  he  was  at  a  suitable  distance,  Beauvoir  struck 
him  over  the  head  so  furious  a  blow  with  the  bar 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  165 

that  the  traitor  fell  like  a  log,  without  uttering  a  cry, 
— the  iron  had  fractured  his  skull.  The  chevalier 
promptly  undressed  the  corpse,  put  the  garments  on 
himself,  imitated  his  walk  and,  thanks  to  the  early 
hour  and  the  lack  of  suspicion  of  the  sentinels  at  the 
principal  gate,  he  escaped." 

Neither  the  procureur  du  roi  nor  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  appeared  to  perceive  that  there  was  in  this 
narration  the  slightest  suggestion  of  prophecy  con- 
cerning themselves.  Those  interested  in  the  plot 
cast  interrogating  glances  at  each  other,  as  if  sur- 
prised at  the  perfect  indifference  of  the  two  pre- 
tended lovers. 

"Bah!  I  have  a  better  story  to  tell  you,"  said 
Bianchon. 

"  Let  us  hear  it,"  said  the  auditors,  at  a  sign  from 
Lousteau  which  indicated  that  Bianchon  had  his  own 
little  reputation  as  a  story-teller. 

Among  those  histories  which  composed  his  stock  in 
trade  of  narrations,  for  all  clever  people  have  a  certain 
quantity  of  anecdotes  on  hand,  as  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  had  her  collection  of  phrases,  the  illustri- 
ous doctor  selected  that  known  under  the  name  of 
la  Grande-Breteche  and  which  has  become  so  cele- 
brated that  it  was  brought  out  at  the  Gymnase- 
Dramatique  as  a  vaudeville  under  the  name  of 
Valentine. — See  Another  Study  of  Woman. — There- 
fore it  would  be  perfectly  useless  to  repeat  that 
adventure  here,  although  it  was  all  new  matter 
for  the  inhabitants  of  the  Chateau  d'Anzy.  It  was, 
moreover,  set  off  with  the  same  perfection  of  ges- 


166  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

tures,  of  intonations,  which  procured  the  doctor  so 
many  eulogies  when  he  related  it  in  the  house  of 
Mademoiselle  des  Touches  for  the  first  time.  The 
last  picture  of  the  grandee  of  Spain,  dying  of  hunger, 
and  standing  in  the  wardrobe  in  which  the  husband 
of  Madame  de  Merret  had  walled  him  up,  and  the  last 
speech  of  this  husband,  replying  to  his  wife's  last 
prayer :  "  You  have  sworn  on  this  crucifix  that  there 
was  no  one  there!"  produced  their  full  effect. 
There  was  a  moment  of  silence  that  was  sufficiently 
flattering  for  Bianchon. 

"  Do  you  know,  messieurs,"  then  said  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye,  "that  love  must  be  something  im- 
mense, to  lead  a  woman  to  place  herself  in  such  sit- 
uations ?  " 

"  I  who  certainly  have  seen  strange  things  in  my 
life,"  said  Monsieur  Gravier,  "  I  was  almost  a  wit- 
ness in  Spain  of  an  adventure  of  that  kind." 

"You  come  after  the  great  actors,"  said  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye  to  him,  flattering  the  two  Parisians 
with  a  coquettish  look;  "but  never  mind,  go 
ahead." 

"Some  time  after  his  entry  into  Madrid,"  said 
the  receiver  of  taxes,  "the  Grand-Due  de  Berg  in- 
vited the  principal  personages  of  that  city  to  a  fete 
offered  by  the  French  army  to  the  newly  conquered 
capital.  Notwithstanding  the  splendor  of  the  festi- 
val, the  Spaniards  did  not  laugh  very  much,  their 
wives  danced  but  little,  most  of  the  guests  sat 
down  to  play.  The  gardens  of  the  palace  were  il- 
luminated so  splendidly  that  the  ladies  could  walk 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  167 

about  in  them  with  as  much  security  as  they  could 
have  done  in  full  daylight.  The  fete  was  im- 
perially beautiful.  Nothing  had  been  spared,  with 
the  object  of  giving  the  Spaniards  a  lofty  idea  of  the 
Emperor,  if  they  were  willing  to  judge  him  by  his 
lieutenants.  In  a  little  grove  at  a  short  distance 
from  the  palace,  between  one  and  two  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  several  of  the  French  military  men 
were  discussing  the  prospects  of  the  war,  and  the 
not  reassuring  future  which  the  attitude  of  the 
Spaniards  present  at  this  pompous  fete  seemed  to 
prophesy. 

"  '  Upon  my  word,'  said  the  surgeon-in-chief  of 
the  corps  d'armee  in  which  I  was  paymaster-general, 
'  yesterday  I  formally  asked  Prince  Murat  for  my 
recall.  Without  being  exactly  afraid  of  leaving  my 
bones  in  the  Peninsula,  I  prefer  to  go  and  heal  the 
wounds  made  by  our  neighbors  the  Germans  ;  their 
weapons  do  not  penetrate  as  far  into  the  body  as  do 
the  Castilian  poniards.  Then,  the  fear  of  Spain  is 
with  me  a  superstition.  From  my  childhood  I  have 
read  Spanish  books,  a  heap  of  sombre  adventures 
and  a  thousand  stories  of  this  country  which  have 
effectively  warned  me  against  its  manners  and 
customs.  Well,  since  our  entry  into  Madrid,  it  has 
already  happened  to  me  to  be,  if  not  the  hero,  at 
least  the  accomplice  of  some  perilous  intrigue,  as 
black,  as  obscure,  as  could  be  any  romance  by  Lady 
Radcliffe.  I  give  a  willing  ear  to  my  presentiments, 
and  to-morrow  I  take  myself  off.  Murat  will  cer- 
tainly not  refuse  me  my  conge,  for,  thanks  to  the 


168  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

services  which  we  render,  we  have  always  effica- 
cious protections.' 

"  '  Since  you  are  going  to  bolt,  tell  us  your  ad- 
venture,' replied  a  colonel,  an  old  Republican  who 
concerned  himself  but  little  with  fine  language  and 
imperial  flatteries. 

"  The  surgeon-in-chief  looked  carefully  around 
him  as  if  to  recognize  the  faces  of  those  who  sur- 
rounded him,  and,  sure  that  no  Spaniard  was  in  the 
neighborhood,  he  said  : 

"  '  We  are  all  Frenchmen  here  ;  willingly,  Colonel 
Hulot.' 

"  '  Six  days  ago  I  was  returning  peacefully  to  my 
lodging,  about  eleven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  having 
just  left  General  Montcornet,  whose  hotel  is  at  a  few 
steps  from  mine.  We  had  both  of  us  come  from  the 
house  of  the  ordonnateur  en  chef,  where  we  had  had 
a  sufficiently  animated  game  of  bouillotte.  Sud- 
denly, at  the  corner  of  a  little  street,  two  unknowns, 
or  rather  two  devils,  threw  themselves  upon  me  and 
wrapped  my  head  and  my  arms  in  a  great  cloak.  I 
cried  out,  as  you  may  believe,  like  a  whipped  dog, 
but  the  cloth  smothered  my  voice,  and  I  was  trans- 
ported into  a  carriage  with  the  most  rapid  dex- 
terity. 

"  '  When  my  two  companions  had  relieved  me  of 
the  cloak,  I  heard  these  very  disagreeable  words 
pronounced  by  a  woman's  voice  in  bad  French  : 

"  '  "  If  you  cry  out,  or  if  you  make  any  sign  of 
escaping,  if  you  permit  yourself  the  least  doubtful 
gesture,  the  monsieur  who  is  before  you  is  capable 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  169 

of  poniarding  you  without  scruple.  Therefore  keep 
quiet.  Meanwhile  I  will  inform  you  as  to  the  cause 
of  your  abduction.  If  you  will  give  yourself  the 
trouble  to  stretch  out  your  hand  toward  me,  you 
will  find  between  us  two  all  your  surgical  instru- 
ments which  we  have  sent  to  get  from  your  house 
in  your  name  ;  you  will  have  need  of  them  ;  we  are 
conducting  you  to  a  house  to  save  the  honor  of  a 
lady  who  is  on  the  point  of  an  accouchement  of  an 
infant  which  she  is  about  to  give  to  this  gentleman 
without  her  husband's  knowledge.  Although  mon- 
sieur scarcely  leaves  madame,  with  whom  he  is  still 
passionately  in  love,  and  whom  he  watches  with  all 
the  attentiveness  of  Spanish  jealousy,  she  has  been 
able  to  conceal  her  condition  from  him,  he  thinks  her 
ill.  You  will  then  attend  to  the  accouchement.  The 
dangers  of  the  enterprise  do  not  concern  you, — only, 
obey  us  ;  otherwise,  the  lover,  who  is  opposite  you 
in  the  carriage,  and  who  does  not  know  a  word  of 
French,  will  poniard  you  at  the  slightest  impru- 
dence." 

"  '  "  And  who  are  you  ?  "  I  said  to  her,  feeling 
for  the  hand  of  my  interlocutor,  whose  arm  was 
covered  with  the  sleeve  of  a  uniform  coat. 

"  '  "  lam  Madame's  cameriste, — maid  of  honor, — 
her  confidante,  and  quite  ready  to  recompense  you  by 
myself,  if  you  lend  yourself  gallantly  to  the  exigen- 
cies of  our  situation." 

"  '  "  Willingly,"  I  said,  seeing  myself  enlisted  by 
compulsion  in  a  dangerous  adventure. 

"  '  Through  favor  of  the  darkness  I  proceeded  to 


170  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

verify  the  fact  that  the  face  and  the  form  of  this 
girl  were  in  harmony  with  the  ideas  which  the  quality 
of  her  voice  had  given  me.  This  good  creature  had 
doubtless  resigned  herself  in  advance  to  all  the 
chances  of  this  singular  abduction,  for  she  preserved 
the  most  obliging  silence,  and  the  carriage  had  not 
rolled  through  the  streets  of  Madrid  for  more  than 
ten  minutes  when  she  received  and  returned  a  satis- 
fying kiss.  The  lover  whom  I  had  before  me  took 
no  offence  at  certain  kicks  with  which  I  gratified  him 
quite  involuntarily  ;  but,  as  he  understood  no  French, 
I  presume  that  he  paid  no  attention  to  them. 

"'"I  can  be  your  mistress  only  on  one  condi- 
tion," said  the  cameriste  to  me  in  reply  to  the 
stupidities  which  I  retailed  to  her,  carried  away  by 
the  heat  of  an  improvised  passion  to  which  every- 
thing was  opposed. 

"'"And  what  is  that?  " 

"'"You  shall  never  endeavor  to  ascertain  to 
whom  I  belong.  If  I  should  come  to  your  house,  it 
will  be  at  night,  and  you  will  receive  me  without  a 
light." 

"'"Good,"  I  replied. 

"  '  Our  conversation  had  reached  this  point  when 
the  carriage  stopped  near  a  garden  wall. 

"  '  "  Let  me  bandage  your  eyes,"  said  thefemme 
de  chambre  to  me;  "you  will  lean  upon  my  arm, 
and  I  will  conduct  you  myself." 

"  '  She  covered  my  eyes  with  a  handkerchief 
which  she  knotted  tightly  behind  my  head.  I  heard 
the  noise  of  a  key  inserted  with  precaution  in  the 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  171 

lock  of  a  little  gate  by  the  silent  lover  whom  I  had 
had  for  a  vis-a-vis.  Presently  the  femme  de  cham- 
bre,  with  her  rounded  form,  and  who  had  in  her  walk 
something  of  the  meneho — ' 

"  That  is,"  said  the  receiver,  assuming  a  little 
tone  of  superiority,  "a  word  of  the  Spanish  lan- 
guage, an  idiom  which  describes  the  movements 
which  the  women  know  how  to  give  to  a  certain 
part  of  the  dress  which  you  will  readily  conceive" — 

"  '  The  femme  de  chambre — I  resume  the  narra- 
tion of  the  surgeon-in-chief — 'conducted me  over  the 
sanded  alleys  of  a  large  garden  to  a  certain  point, 
where  she  stopped.  By  the  noise  which  our  foot- 
steps made  in  the  air,  I  supposed  that  we  were  be- 
fore the  house. 

"'"Silence,  now,"  she  said  in  my  ear,  "and 
watch  yourself  carefully  !  Do  not  lose  sight  of  one 
of  my  signs,  I  can  no  longer  speak  to  you  without 
danger  for  both  of  us,  and  the  question  is  at  this 
moment  of  saving  your  life." 

"  '  Then  she  added,  but  aloud  : 

"  '  "  Madame  is  in  a  chamber  on  the  ground  floor ; 
to  reach  it,  it  will  be  necessary  for  us  to  pass  into 
the  chamber  and  before  the  bed  of  her  husband  ;  do 
not  cough,  walk  softly,  and  follow  me  carefully,  so 
as  not  to  run  into  some  piece  of  furniture  or  step 
outside  the  carpet  that  I  have  arranged." 

"  '  Here  the  lover  muttered  sullenly  like  a  man 
made  impatient  by  so  many  delays.  The  cameriste 
became  silent,  I  heard  a  door  open,  I  felt  the  warm 
air  of  an  apartment,  and  we  proceeded  with  stealthy 


172  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

steps,  like  thieves  on  an  expedition.  Finally  the 
soft  hand  of  the  girl  took  off  my  bandage.  I  found 
myself  in  a  large  chamber,  quite  high,  and  badly  lit 
by  a  smoky  lamp.  The  window  was  open,  but  it 
had  been  furnished  with  heavy  bars  of  iron  by  the 
jealous  husband. 

"  '  I  had  been  thrown  in  here  as  into  the  bottom 
of  a  sack.  On  the  floor,  on  a  mat,  a  woman  whose 
head  was  covered  with  a  muslin  veil,  but  through 
which  her  eyes,  filled  with  tears,  shone  with  all  the 
brilliancy  of  the  stars,  held  a  handkerchief  pressed  to 
her  mouth  and  bit  it  so  vigorously  that  her  teeth  pene- 
trated it ;  never  have  I  seen  so  beautiful  a  body,  but 
this  body  was  writhing  under  its  agony  like  a  harp 
chord  thrown  on  the  fire.  The  unhappy  woman  had 
made  two  arched  buttresses  of  her  legs  by  support- 
ing them  on  a  species  of  commode ;  then,  with  her 
two  hands,  she  held  on  to  the  rounds  of  a  chair  by 
stretching  her  arms,  all  the  veins  of  which  were  hor- 
ribly swollen.  She  resembled  thus  a  criminal  in  the 
agonies  of  the  question.  Not  a  cry,  moreover,  not 
another  sound  than  the  dull  cracking  of  her  bones. 
We  were  there,  we  three,  mute  and  motionless. 
The  snoring  of  the  husband  resounded  with  a  con- 
soling regularity.  I  wished  to  examine  the  came- 
riste ;  but  she  had  resumed  the  mask  which  she  had 
doubtless  taken  off  during  the  ride,  and  I  could  see 
only  two  black  eyes  and  agreeably  accented  forms. 
The  lover  immediately  threw  some  napkins  on  the 
legs  of  his  mistress  and  folded  in  double  across  her 
face  the  veil  of  muslin.     When  I  had  carefully  ob- 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  173 

served  this  woman  I  recognized  by  certain  symptoms, 
previously  remarked  under  very  sad  circumstances 
of  my  life,  that  the  child  was  dead.  I  leaned  over 
quickly  to  the  girl  to  inform  her  of  this  fact.  At 
that  moment  the  suspicious  unknown  drew  his 
poniard ;  but  I  had  time  to  say  everything  to  the 
femme  de  chambre,  who  whispered  two  words  to 
him  hastily.  On  hearing  my  decision,  the  lover  ex- 
perienced a  slight  shiver,  which  passed  through  him 
from  his  feet  to  his  head  like  a  flash  ;  it  seemed  to 
me  that  I  could  see  his  face  turn  pale  under  his 
mask  of  black  velvet.  The  cameriste  seized  a  mo- 
ment when  this  despairing  man  was  looking  at  the 
dying  woman,  who  had  turned  violet,  and  showed 
me  on  a  table,glasses  of  lemonade  already  prepared, 
making  me  a  negative  sign.  I  comprehended  that  it 
would  be  necessary  for  me  to  abstain  from  drinking, 
notwithstanding  the  horrible  heat  which  was  parch- 
ing my  throat.  The  lover  was  thirsty,  he  took  an 
empty  glass,  filled  it  with  lemonade  and  drank.  At 
that  moment  the  lady  had  a  violent  convulsion 
which  announced  to  me  that  the  favorable  moment 
for  the  operation  had  arrived.  I  summoned  my 
courage,  and  I  was  able,  after  an  hour's  labor,  to 
extract  the  infant  by  pieces.  The  Spaniard  no 
longer  thought  of  poisoning  me  when  he  compre- 
hended that  I  had  succeeded  in  saving  his  mistress. 
Great  tears  rolled  momentarily  down  his  cloak. 
The  wife  did  not  utter  a  cry,  but  she  shuddered  like 
a  wild  beast  surprised,  and  sweated  in  great  drops. 
In  one  horribly  critical  moment  she  made  a  gesture 


174  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

to  indicate  her  husband's  chamber, — the  husband 
had  turned  over  in  bed  ;  of  we  four,  she  only  had 
heard  the  moving  of  the  draperies,  the  rustling  of 
the  bed  or  the  curtains.  We  stopped,  and  through 
the  eye-holes  of  their  masks  the  lover  and  the  came- 
riste  exchanged  glances  of  fire,  as  though  they  said 
to  each  other :  Shall  we  kill  him  if  he  awakens  ? 
1  extended  my  hand  then  to  take  the  glass  of  lem- 
onade from  which  the  unknown  had  drunk.  The 
Spaniard  thought  that  I  was  going  to  drink  one  of 
the  full  glasses,  he  leaped  like  a  cat,  laid  his  long 
poniard  over  the  two  poisoned  glasses,  and  left  me 
his  own,  making  me  a  sign  to  drink  the  rest  of  it. 
There  were  so  many  ideas,  so  much  feeling,  in  this  sign 
and  in  his  quick  movement,  that  I  forgave  him  the 
atrocious  combinations  which  he  had  meditated,  to 
kill  me  and  thus  bury  all  memory  of  this  event. 
After  two  hours  of  cares  and  of  fears,  the  cameriste 
and  I  put  her  mistress  back  in  bed.  This  man, 
who  had  embarked  in  so  adventurous  an  enterprise, 
had  put  some  diamonds  in  a  paper  in  preparation 
for  a  flight, — he  thrust  them,  unknown  to  me,  into 
my  pocket.  As  a  parenthesis,  as  I  was  ignorant  of 
the  Spaniard's  sumptuous  gift,  my  servant  stole  this 
treasure  from  me  the  next  day  but  one,  and  fled, 
securing  a  veritable  fortune.  I  whispered  into  the 
ear  of  the  femme  de  chambre  the  precautions  which 
remained  to  be  taken,  and  I  wished  to  decamp. 
The  cameriste  remained  by  the  side  of  her  mistress, 
a  circumstance  which  did  not  reassure  me  exces- 
sively ;  but  I  resolved  to  keep  myself  on  my  guard. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  175 

The  lover  made  a  package  of  the  dead  infant  and  of 
the  linen  in  which  the  femme  de  chambre  had  re- 
ceived her  mistress's  blood  ;  he  tied  it  tightly,  con- 
cealed it  under  his  cloak,  passed  his  hand  over  my 
eyes  as  if  to  tell  me  to  close  them,  and  went  out  the 
first,  inviting  me  by  a  gesture  to  hold  on  to  a  fold  of 
his  coat.  I  obeyed,  not  without  casting  a  last  glance 
at  my  mistress  by  chance.  The  cameriste  snatched 
off  her  mask  when  she  saw  the  Spaniard  outside, 
and  showed  me  the  most  delicious  face  in  the  world. 
When  I  found  myself  in  the  garden,  in  the  open  air, 
I  admit  that  I  drew  in  my  breath  as  if  an  enormous 
weight  had  been  removed  from  my  chest.  I  walked 
at  a  respectful  distance  from  my  guide,  watching  his 
slightest  movements  with  the  greatest  attention. 
When  we  came  to  the  little  gate,  he  took  me  by  the 
hand,  pressed  against  my  lips  a  seal  mounted  as  a 
ring  which  I  had  seen  on  a  finger  of  his  left  hand, 
and  I  made  him  understand  that  I  comprehended 
this  eloquent  sign.  We  found  ourselves  in  the 
street,  where  two  horses  were  waiting  for  us  ;  we 
each  mounted  one,  my  Spaniard  took  my  bridle, 
which  he  held  in  his  left  hand,  took  between  his  teeth 
his  own,  for  he  had  his  bloody  package  in  his  right 
hand,  and  we  set  off  with  the  rapidity  of  a  flash. 
It  was  impossible  for  me  to  notice  the  least  object 
which  could  serve  to  enable  me  to  recognize  the 
route  we  were  traversing.  In  the  early  dawn  I 
found  myself  near  my  door,  and  the  Spaniard  disap- 
peared in  the  direction  of  the  Porte  d'Atocha.'  " 
"  '  And  you  perceived  nothing  that  could  give  you 


176  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

any  idea  with  what  woman  you  had  had  your 
affair? '  said  the  colonel  to  the  surgeon. 

"'One  thing  only,'  he  replied.  'When  I  ar- 
ranged the  unknown  lady  I  noticed  on  her  arm,  near 
the  middle,  a  little  mark,  as  large  as  a  lentil,  and 
surrounded  by  brown  hairs.' 

"  '  At  this  moment  the  indiscreet  surgeon  suddenly 
turned  pale ;  all  eyes,  fixed  on  his,  followed  their 
direction, — we  then  saw  a  Spaniard  with  a  glittering 
eye,  in  a  little  tuft  of  orange  trees.  When  he  per- 
ceived that  our  attention  was  turned  to  him,  this 
man  disappeared  with  the  lightness  of  a  sylph.  A 
captain  immediately  started  in  pursuit  of  him. 

" '  Sarpejeu!  my  friends!'  cried  the  surgeon, 
'that  basilisk's  eye  has  chilled  me.  I  hear  the 
knell  tolling  in  my  ears  !  Receive  my  last  farewells, 
you  will  bury  me  here  ! ' 

"  '  What  an  ass  you  are  !  '  said  Colonel  Hu- 
lot.  '  Falcon  is  on  the  track  of  the  Spaniard  who 
was  listening  to  us,  he  will  bring  him  to  an  ac- 
count.' 

"  '  Well  ?  '  exclaimed  the  officers  on  seeing  the 
captain  return  out  of  breath. 

"  '  The  devil ! '  replied  Falcon,  '  he  went  through 
the  walls,  1  think.  As  I  do  not  believe  that  he  is  a 
sorcerer,  he  doubtless  is  of  the  household  !  he  is  ac- 
quainted with  the  passages,  the  turnings,  and  easily 
escaped  from  me.' 

"  '  I  am  lost ! '  said  the  surgeon  in  a  sombre  voice. 

"'Come  now,  be  easy,  Bega,' — his  name  was 
Bega, — 1  said  to  him,  '  we  will  take  up  our  lodgings 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  177 

in  turn  with  you  until  your  departure.  This  even- 
ing we  will  accompany  you.' 

"  In  fact,  three  young  officers  who  had  lost  their 
money  at  cards  reconducted  the  surgeon  to  his  lodg- 
ing, and  one  of  us  offered  to  stay  with  him.  The 
next  day  but  one  Bega  had  obtained  his  leave  to 
return  to  France,  he  made  all  his  preparations  to 
depart  with  a  lady  to  whom  Murat  was  giving  a 
strong  escort ;  he  was  just  finishing  dinner  in  com- 
pany with  his  friends  when  his  servant  came  to  tell 
him  that  a  young  lady  wished  to  speak  with  him. 
The  surgeon  and  the  three  officers  descended  at 
once,  fearing  some  plot.  The  unknown  could  only 
say  to  her  lover :  '  Take  care  ! '  and  fell  dead.  This 
woman  was  the  cameriste,  who,  feeling  herself 
poisoned,  had  hoped  to  arrive  in  time  to  save  the 
surgeon. 

"  '  The  devil !  the  devil ! '  cried  Captain  Falcon, 
'  that  is  what  you  might  call  loving !  A  Spanish 
woman  is  the  only  one  in  the  world  who  can  trot 
about  with  a  load  of  poison  in  her  bottle.' 

"  Bega  remained  singularly  thoughtful.  To  drown 
the  sinister  presentiments  which  tormented  him,  he 
took  his  seat  at  the  table  again  and  drank  immoder- 
ately, as  did  his  companions.  All  of  them,  half 
drunk,  retired  early.  In  the  middle  of  the  night  the 
poor  Bega  was  awakened  by  the  sharp  noise  made 
by  the  rings  of  his  bed  curtains  suddenly  sliding  on 
their  rods.  He  sat  up  in  bed,  a  prey  to  that  me- 
chanical trepidation  which  seizes  us  at  the  moment 
of  such    an   awakening.     He  then   saw,    standing 


178  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

before  him,  a  Spaniard  enveloped  in  his  mantle, 
who  threw  upon  him  the  same  fiery  look  that  he 
had  seen  in  the  orange  trees  during  the  fete.  Bega 
cried  : 

"'Help!  help!  my  friends  ! ' 

"  To  this  cry  of  distress  the  Spaniard  replied  by  a 
bitter  laugh. 

"  '  Opium  grows  for  all  the  world,'  he  murmured. 

"  This  species  of  sentence  pronounced,  the  un- 
known showed  the  three  friends  sleeping  profoundly, 
drew  from  under  his  mantle  a  woman's  arm  recently 
severed,  presented  it  suddenly  to  Bega,  making  him 
see  upon  it  a  sign  similar  to  that  which  he  had  so 
imprudently  described  : 

"  '  Is  it  indeed  the  same  ? '  he  asked  him. 

"  By  the  light  of  a  lantern  placed  upon  the  bed, 
Bega  recognized  the  arm  and  replied  only  by  his 
stupefaction.  Without  any  further  information  the 
husband  of  the  unknown  plunged  his  poniard  into 
his  heart — " 

' '  You  ought  to  relate  that  to  the  charcoal-burners, ' ' 
said  the  journalist,  "  for  it  would  require  their  robust 
faith  to  believe  it.*  Would  you  kindly  explain  to 
me  who,  the  dead  man  or  the  Spaniard,  told  the 
story  ?  " 

"Monsieur,"  replied  the  receiver  of  taxes,  "I 
nursed  the  poor  Bega,  who  died  five  days  later  in 
horrible  suffering.  This  is  not  all.  At  the  time  of 
the  expedition  undertaken  to  re-establish  Ferdi- 
nand VII.,  I  was  appointed  to  a  post  in  Spain,  and, 

*  Lafoidu  charbonnier,  an  implicit  faith. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  179 

very  fortunately,  I  went  no  farther  than  Tours,  for 
I  was  then  led  to  hope  that  I  might  receive  the  ap- 
pointment of  receiver  in  Sancerre.  The  evening  be- 
fore my  departure  I  was  at  a  ball  given  by  Madame  de 
Listomere  where  there  were  to  be  several  distin- 
guished Spaniards.  As  I  left  the  ecarte  table  I  saw 
a  grandee  of  Spain,  an  afrancesado  in  exile,  who  had 
arrived  two  weeks  before  in  Touraine.  He  had 
come  very  late  to  this  ball,  where  he  made  his  first 
appearance  in  society,  and  traversed  the  salons 
accompanied  by  his  wife,  whose  right  arm  remained 
absolutely  immovable.  We  made  way  in  silence  to 
allow  to  pass  this  couple  whom  we  contemplated 
not  without  emotion.  Imagine  a  living  picture  by 
Murillo  !  In  the  depths  of  hollow  and  dark  orbits, 
the  man  showed  fiery  eyes  which  remained  fixed  ; 
his  face  was  dried,  his  skull  without  hair  presented 
ruddy  tints  and  his  body  was  frightful  to  see,  it  was 
so  thin.  The  wife  !  imagine  her ! —  no,  you  could  not 
see  her  truly.  She  had  that  admirable  figure  which 
has  given  rise  to  the  word  meiieho  in  the  Spanish 
language  ;  although  pale,  she  was  still  beautiful ;  her 
complexion,  by  an  unheard-of  privilege  for  a  Spanish 
woman,  was  dazzlingly  fair ;  but  her  glance,  full  of 
the  sunshine  of  Spain,  fell  upon  you  like  a  jet  of 
molten  lead.  '  Madame,'  I  asked  her,  toward  the  end 
of  the  evening,  '  by  what  accident  did  you  lose  your 
arm  ? '  'In  the  war  of  independence,'  she  replied." 
"Spain  is  a  singular  country,"  said  Madame  de 
la  Baudraye,  "there  are  some  traces  of  Arab  man- 
ners remaining  there  yet." 


180  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  Oh  !  "  said  the  journalist,  laughing,  "this  mania 
for  cutting  off  arms  is  very  old,  it  reappears  at  cer- 
tain epochs  like  some  of  our  canards  in  the  journals, 
for  this  subject  had  already  furnished  dramas  for  the 
Spanish  stage,  from  1570 — " 

"  Do  you  then  think  me  capable  of  inventing  a 
story  ?  "  said  Monsieur  Gravier,  vexed  at  Lous- 
teau's  impertinent  air. 

"You  are  incapable  of  it,"  replied  the  journalist 
meaningly. 

"  Bah  !  "  said  Bianchon,  "the  inventions  of  the 
romancers  and  of  the  feeble  dramatists  as  often  leap 
out  of  their  books  and  their  pieces  into  real  life  as  the 
events  of  real  life  mount  upon  the  stage  and  strut  in 
the  books.  I  have  seen  realized  under  my  own  eyes 
the  comedy  of  Tartuffe,  with  the  exception  of  the  de- 
nouement,— never  could  Orgon's  eyes  be  opened." 

"  And  the  tragi-comedy  of  Adolphe,  by  Benjamin 
Constant,  is  played  every  hour,"  exclaimed  Lous- 
teau. 

"  Do  you  think  that  there  could  still  happen  in 
France,  adventures  like  that  which  Monsieur  Gravier 
has  just  related  to  us  ?  "  said  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye. 

"Eh!  Mon  Dieu!"  exclaimed  the  procureur  du 
roi,  "  of  the  tenor  twelve  remarkable  crimes  which  are 
committed  every  year  in  France,  there  are  half  of 
them  of  which  the  circumstances  are  at  least  as  ex- 
traordinary as  those  of  your  adventures,  and  they 
very  frequently  surpass  them  in  romantic  qualities. 
This  fact  is  surely,  moreover,  proved  by  the  publica- 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  181 

tion  of  the  Gazette  des  Tribunaux,  in  my  opinion  one 
of  the  greatest  abuses  of  the  press.  This  journal, 
which  only  dates  from  1826  or  1827,  was  therefore 
not  in  existence  when  I  made  my  debut  in  the  career  of 
public  officer,  and  the  details  of  the  crime  which  I  am 
going  to  relate  were  not  known  outside  of  the  depart- 
ment where  they  were  perpetrated.  In  the  faubourg 
of  Saint-Pierre-des-Corps,  at  Tours,  a  woman,  whose 
husband  had  disappeared  at  the  time  of  the  disbanding 
of  the  Army  of  the  Loire  in  18 16  and  had  naturally 
been  much  wept,  made  herself  remarkable  by  an  ex- 
cessive devotion.  When  the  missionaries  traversed 
the  cities  of  the  provinces  to  set  up  again  the  crosses 
that  had  been  thrown  down  and  efface  all  the  traces 
of  the  revolutionary  impieties,  this  widow  was  one  of 
the  most  ardent  proselytes,  she  carried  the  cross,  she 
nailed  to  it  her  heart  in  silver  pierced  by  a  dart,  and, 
for  a  long  time  after  the  mission,  she  went  every 
evening  to  say  her  prayers  at  the  foot  of  the  cross 
which  was  set  up  behind  the  apse  of  the  cathedral. 
Finally,  overcome  by  her  remorse,  she  confessed  a 
frightful  crime.  She  had  slaughtered  her  husband 
as  Fualdes  was  slaughtered,  by  bleeding  him  to 
death,  she  had  salted  him  down,  put  him  in  two  old 
puncheons,  in  pieces,  exactly  as  she  would  have 
done  a  pig.  And  for  a  long  time,  every  morning 
she  had  cut  off  a  piece  and  taken  and  thrown  it 
into  the  Loire.  The  confessor  consulted  his  supe- 
riors and  notified  the  penitent  that  he  should  in- 
form the  procureur  du  roi.  The  woman  waited  for 
the  descent  of  justice.     The  procureur  du  roi  and 


182  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

the  juge  d'instruction  visiting  the  cellar,  found  the 
head  of  the  husband  still  there  in  the  salt,  in  one 
of  the  puncheons.  '  But,  unhappy  woman,'  said 
the  juge  d'instruction  to  the  accused,  '  since  you 
have  had  the  barbarity  to  throw  into  the  river  in  this 
manner  your  husband's  body,  why  did  you  not  make 
the  head  disappear  also  ?  There  would  then  no 
longer  have  been  any  proof ' — '  I  have  often  tried  to 
do  so,  monsieur,'  she  replied  ;  '  but  I  always  found 
it  too  heavy.'  " 

"Well,  what  did  they  do  with  the  woman  ? — " 
cried  the  two  Parisians. 

"  She  was  condemned  and  executed  at  Tours," 
replied  the  magistrate  ;  "  but  her  repentance  and  her 
religious  faith  in  the  end  attracted  an  interest  in  her, 
despite  the  enormity  of  her  crime." 

"  Ah  !  does  any  one  know,"  said  Bianchon,  "all 
the  tragedies  which  take  place  behind  the  curtain  of 
the  household,  which  the  public  never  raises?  It 
seems  tome  that  human  justice  is  not  well  contrived 
to  judge  of  crimes  between  husband  and  wife  ;  it  has 
every  right  as  police,  but  it  has  no  understanding 
there  in  its  pretensions  to  equity." 

"  Very  frequently  the  victim  has  been  so  long  the 
executioner,"  replied  Madame  de  la  Baudraye 
naively,  "that  the  crime  would  sometimes  appear 
excusable  if  the  accused  dared  to  say  all." 

This  response,  drawn  out  by  Bianchon,  and  the 
story  related  by  the  procureur  du  roi  threw  the  two 
Parisians  into  a  state  of  great  perplexity  concerning 
Dinah's  true  situation.     Thus,  when  the  hour  for 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  183 

retiring  arrived,  there  was  held  one  of  those  conven- 
ticles which  take  place  in  the  corridors  of  those  old 
chateaux  when  the  young  men  all  remain,  their  can- 
dles in  their  hands,  talking  mysteriously.  Monsieur 
Gravier  then  learned  the  object  of  this  amusing 
evening,  in  which  the  innocence  of  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  had  been  set  forth. 

"  After  all,"  said  Lousteau,  "the  impassiveness 
of  our  chatelaine  might  indicate  as  well  a  profound 
depravity  as  the  most  infantile  candor. — The  pro- 
cureur  du  roi  had  the  air,  to  me,  of  proposing  to 
make  the  little  La  Baudraye  into  a  salad — " 

"  He  does  not  return  till  to-morrow ;  who  knows 
what  will  happen  to-night  ?  "  said  Gatien. 

"  We  will  know,"  cried  Monsieur  Gravier. 

Life  in  a  chateau  includes  an  infinite  number  of  bad 
jests,  among  which  there  are  some  that  are  horribly 
perfidious.  Monsieur  Gravier,  who  had  seen  so 
many  things,  proposed  to  put  seals  on  the  doors  of 
the  rooms  of  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  and  of  the 
procureur  du  roi.  The  accusing  cranes  of  the  mur- 
dered poet  Ibycus  were  nothing  in  comparison  with 
the  hair  which  the  spies  of  the  chateau  fixed  on  the 
opening  of  the  door  by  two  little  flattened  balls  of 
wax,  placed  so  low  or  so  high  that  it  was  impossible 
to  suspect  this  trap.  Should  the  gallant  come  out 
and  open  the  other  suspected  door,  the  coincidence 
of  the  two  broken  hairs  would  reveal  all.  When 
everyone  was  thought  to  be  asleep,  the  doctor,  the 
journalist,  the  receiver  of  taxes  and  Gatien  came 
barefooted,  like  real  thieves,  to  condemn  mysteri- 


1 84  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

ously  the  two  doors,  and  promised  themselves  to 
come  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  verify  the 
state  of  the  seals.  Judge  of  their  astonishment  and 
of  the  pleasure  of  Gatien  when  all  four,  candle  in 
hand,  half-clad,  came  to  examine  the  hairs  and 
found  that  of  the  procureur  du  roi  and  that  of  Ma- 
dame de  la  Baudraye  in  a  satisfactory  state  of  pres- 
ervation. 

"Is  it  the  same  wax  ?  "  asked  Monsieur  Gravier. 

"Is  it  the  same  hair  ?  "  asked  Lousteau. 

"  Yes,"  said  Gatien. 

"  That  changes  everything,"  exclaimed  Lousteau, 
"  you  have  beaten  the  bushes  for  Robin  des  bois." 

The  receiver  of  taxes  and  the  president's  son 
looked  at  each  other  with  an  interrogating  glance 
which  seemed  to  say  :  "  Is  there  not  something  in 
this  phrase  which  is  meant  for  us  ?  should  we  laugh 
or  get  angry  ?  " 

"If  Dinah  is  virtuous,"  said  the  journalist  in 
Bianchon's  ear,  "  it  would  be  well  worth  the  trouble 
that  I  should  gather  the  fruit  of  her  first  love." 

The  idea  of  carrying  in  a  few  moments  a  fortified 
place  that  had  resisted  the  Sancerrois  for  nine  years 
pleased  Lousteau.  With  this  thought  in  his  mind 
he  descended  the  first  into  the  garden,  hoping  to 
meet  the  chatelaine  there.  This  chance  came  to 
pass  all  the  more  readily  that  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye had  also  the  desire  to  have  an  interview  with 
her  critic.  The  greater  number  of  chances  are 
sought  for. 

"Yesterday,    you  hunted,  monsieur,"   said   Ma- 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  185 

dame  de  la  Baudraye.  "  This  morning  I  am  suffi- 
ciently embarrassed  to  find  a  new  amusement  to 
offer  you  ;  unless  you  should  be  willing  to  come  to 
La  Baudraye,  where  you  could  study  the  province  a 
little  better  than  here,  for  you  made  but  one  mouth- 
ful of  my  absurdities  ;  but  the  proverb  concerning 
the  most  beautiful  maid  in  the  world  applies  also  to 
the  poor  woman  of  the  provinces." 

"  That  little  fool  of  a  Gatien,"  replied  Lousteau, 
"doubtless  repeated  to  you  a  phrase  which  I  had 
made  use  of  in  order  to  get  him  to  admit  that  he 
adored  you.  Your  silence,  on  the  day  before  yester- 
day, both  during  the  dinner  and  during  the  whole 
evening,  revealed  to  me  with  sufficient  clearness  one 
of  those  indiscretions  which  are  never  committed  in 
Paris.  What  would  you  have  !  I  do  not  flatter 
myself  that  I  am  always  easy  to  be  understood. 
Thus,  I  plotted  to  have  all  those  stories  told  yester- 
day evening  solely  for  the  purpose  of  knowing  if  we 
should  cause  you,  you  and  Monsieur  de  Clagny, 
some  remorse — Oh !  reassure  yourself,  we  are 
certain  of  your  innocence.  If  you  had  had  the  least 
weakness  for  that  virtuous  magistrate,  you  would 
have  lost  all  your  value  in  my  eyes — I  love  that 
which  is  complete.  You  do  not  love,  you  cannot 
love  that  cold,  that  little,  that  dried-up,  that  dumb 
usurer  in  puncheons  and  lands  who  has  planted  you 
here  for  the  sake  of  the  twenty-five  centimes  to  be 
made  on  the  second  crops  !  Oh  !  1  have  quite  recog- 
nized the  identity  of  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  with 
our   discounters   of  Paris, — it  is  the   same   nature. 


186  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

Twenty-eight  years  of  age,  beautiful,  wise,  child- 
less— indeed,  madame,  I  have  never  seen  the  prob- 
lem of  virtue  better  presented. — The  author  of 
Paquita  la  Sevillane  must  have  dreamed  many 
dreams  ! — I  can  speak  to  you  of  all  these  things 
without  the  hypocrisy  of  words  which  the  young 
people  put  in  them,  I  am  old  before  my  time.  I 
have  no  longer  any  illusions ;  are  there  any  pre- 
served in  the  trade  which  I  have  followed  ? — " 

In  beginning  thus,  Lousteau  suppressed  the  entire 
chart  of  the  country  of  the  Tender,  in  which  the 
true  passions  make  such  long  patrols,  he  went 
straight  to  the  object  by  putting  himself  in  a  position 
to  offer  that  which  the  women  cause  to  be  asked  of 
them  for  years, — witness  the  poor  procureur  du  roi, 
for  whom  the  utmost  favor  consisted  in  pressing  a 
little  more  carnally  than  usual,  the  arm  of  Dinah 
against  his  heart  in  walking  with  her,  the  happy 
man  !  Thus,  not  to  give  the  lie  to  her  renown  as  a 
superior  woman,  did  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  en- 
deavor to  console  the  Manfred  of  the  feuilleton  by 
prophesying  to  him  a  whole  future  of  love  of  which 
he  had  not  dreamed. 

"  You  have  sought  for  pleasure,  but  you  have  not 
yet  loved,"  said  she.  "  Believe  me,  true  love  often 
comes  when  life  is  most  feeble.  Look  at  Monsieur 
de  Gentz  falling  in  love  with  Fanny  Ellsler  in  his  old 
age,  and  forsaking  the  revolutions  of  July  for  the 
rehearsals  of  this  dancer !  " 

"  That  seems  difficult  to  me,"  replied  Lousteau. 
"  I  believe  in  love,  but  I  do  not  believe  in  woman. — 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  187 

There  are  doubtless  in  me  defects  which  forbid  my 
being  loved,  for  I  have  often  been  forsaken.  Per- 
haps have  I  too  much  the  sentiment  of  the  ideal — 
like  all  those  who  have  digged  into  reality. — " 


Madame  de  la  Baudraye  heard  at  last  the  speech 
of  a  man  who,  thrown  into  the  midst  of  the  most 
brilliant  Parisian  world,  brought  with  him  its  most 
daring  axioms,  its  almost  ingenuous  depravations,  its 
advanced  convictions,  and  who,  if  he  were  not  su- 
perior, at  least  pretended  to  be  superior  very  well. 
Etienne  had  with  Dinah  all  the  success  of  a  first 
representation.  Paquita  la  Sancerroise  inhaled  the 
tempests  of  Paris,  the  air  of  Paris.  She  passed  one 
of  the  most  agreeable  days  of  her  entire  life  between 
Etienne  and  Bianchon,  who  related  to  her  the  curi- 
ous anecdotes  concerning  the  great  men  of  the  day, 
the  flights  of  wit  which  will  be  some  day  the  ana  of 
our  century ;  words  and  things  common  in  Paris, 
but  entirely  new  to  her.  Naturally  Lousteau  said 
much  that  was  evil  of  the  great  feminine  celebrity  of 
Berri,  but  with  the  evident  intention  of  flattering 
Madame  de  la  Baudraye  and  of  enticing  her  upon  the 
ground  of  literary  confidences  in  causing  her  to  con- 
sider this  writer  as  her  rival.  This  praise  intoxi- 
cated Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  who  appeared  to 
Monsieur  de  Clagny,  to  the  receiver  of  taxes  and  to 

Gatien  to  be  more  affectionate  with  Etienne  than  on 
(189) 


190  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

the  evening  before.  These  lovers  of  Dinah  regretted 
much  to  have  all  of  them  to  go  back  to  Sancerre, 
where  they  loudly  advertised  the  evening  at  Anzy. 
Never,  according  to  them,  had  such  wit  been  ut- 
tered. The  hours  had  flown  away  without  anyone 
being  able  to  perceive  their  light  feet.  The  two 
Parisians  were  celebrated  by  them  as  two  prodigies. 
These  exaggerations  trumpeted  upon  the  Mail  had 
for  effect  to  bring  sixteen  persons  in  the  evening  to 
the  Chateau  d'Anzy,  some  in  family  cabriolets, 
some  in  char  a  bancs,  and  a  few  celibates  upon 
hired  horses.  About  seven  o'clock,  these  provin- 
cials made,  more  or  less  well,  their  entry  into  the 
immense  salon  of  Anzy,  which  Dinah,  forewarned 
of  this  invasion,  had  brilliantly  lit  up,  and  to  which 
she  had  given  all  its  splendor  by  taking  off  the  gray 
wrappings  from  its  fine  furniture,  for  she  regarded 
this  soiree  as  one  of  her  great  days.  Lousteau, 
Bianchon  and  Dinah  exchanged  glances  of  mutual  in- 
telligence in  watching  the  attitudes,  in  listening  to 
the  phrases  of  these  visitors  allured  by  curiosity. 
How  many  invalided  ribbons,  hereditary  laces,  old 
flowers  more  artful  than  artificial  presented  them- 
selves audaciously  on  their  biennial  caps.  The  wife 
of  the  president  Boirouge,  a  cousin  of  Bianchon,  ex- 
changed a  few  phrases  with  the  doctor,  from  whom 
she  obtained  a  gratuitous  consultation  by  explaining 
to  him  some  pretended  nervous  troubles  in  the  stom- 
ach, in  which  he  recognized  periodic  indigestion. 

"  Merely  take  some  tea  every  day,  an  hour  after 
your  dinner,  like  the  English,  and  you  will  be  cured, 


THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  191 

for  that  which  you  experience  is  an  English  affec- 
tion," replied  Bianchon  gravely. 

"He  is  decidedly  a  very  great  physician,"  said 
the  president's  wife,  returning  to  Madame  de 
Clagny,  to  Madame  Popinot-Chandier  and  to  Ma- 
dame Gorju,  the  wife  of  the  mayor. 

"It  is  said,"  replied  Madame  de  Clagny  under 
her  fan,  "that  Dinah  had  him  come  much  less  for 
the  elections  than  to  learn  the  cause  of  her  steril- 
ity—" 

In  the  first  moments  of  their  success,  Lousteau 
presented  the  learned  physician  as  the  only  candi- 
date possible  at  the  coming  elections.  But  Bian- 
chon, to  the  great  contentment  of  the  new  sous-pre- 
fet,  observed  that  it  appeared  to  him  to  be  almost 
impossible  to  abandon  science  for  politics. 

"  There  are,"  said  he,  "  only  the  doctors  without 
patients  who  can  get  themselves  named  as  deputies. 
Nominate  then  the  statesmen,  the  thinkers,  the  men 
whose  acquaintance  is  universal,  who  know  how  to 
place  themselves  at  the  height  at  which  a  legislator 
should  stand, — that  is  what  is  lacking  in  our  tv/o 
Chambers,  and  what  is  necessary  for  our  coun- 
try !  " 

Two  or  three  young  girls,  some  young  men  and 
their  wives,  examined  Lousteau  as  though  he  were 
a  sleight-of-hand  performer. 

"Monsieur  Gatien  Boirouge  pretends  that  Mon- 
sieur Lousteau  makes  twenty  thousand  francs  a  year 
by  writing,"  said  the  wife  of  the  mayor  to  Madame 
de  Clagny,  "  do  you  believe  it  ?  " 


192  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  Is  it  possible,  for  they  only  pay  a  thousand  ecus 
to  a  procureur  du  roi — " 

"  Monsieur  Gatien,"  said  Madame  Chandier,  "  do 
make  Monsieur  Lousteau  speak  aloud.  1  have  not 
yet  heard  him —  " 

"  What  beautiful  boots  he  has !  "  said  Made- 
moiselle Chandier  to  her  brother,  "  and  how  they 
shine!" 

"  Bah  !  that  is  varnish." 

"  Why  don't  you  have  some  ?  " 

Lousteau  ended  by  discovering  that  he  was  posing 
too  much,  and  recognized  in  the  attitude  of  the 
Sancerrois  the  indications  of  the  desire  which  had 
brought  them. 

"  What  could  we  .do  for  them  ?  "  he  thought. 

At  this  moment  the  pretended  valet  de  chambre  of 
Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye,  a  farm  servant  dressed  in 
a  livery,  brought  in  the  letters,  the  journals,  and 
handed  a  package  of  proofs  which  the  journalist  al- 
lowed Bianchon  to  take,  for  Madame  de  la  Baudraye 
said  to  him  on  seeing  the  package,  the  shape  and 
the  cords  of  which  were  sufficiently  typographic  : 

"  What !  literature  pursues  you  even  here  ?  " 

"  Not  literature,"  he  replied,  "  but  the  review  in 
which  I  am  finishing  a  novel,  and  which  appears  in 
ten  days.  I  have  come  to  the  point  of  To  be  coil- 
eluded  in  our  next,  and  I  was  obliged  to  give  my  ad- 
dress to  the  printer.  Ah  !  we  eat  a  bread  sold  to  us 
very  dearly  by  the  speculators  in  inked  paper !  I 
should  describe  to  you  that  curious  species,  the 
directors  of  reviews." 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  193 

"  When  will  the  conversation  commence  ?  "  said 
Madame  de  Clagny  to  Dinah,  just  as  one  would  ask  : 
"  When  do  the  fireworks  begin  ?  " 

"I  thought,"  said  Madame  Popinot-Chandier  to 
her  cousin,  the  wife  of  the  president  Boirouge,  "that 
we  should  have  some  stories." 

At  this  moment  when,  as  from  impatient  orches- 
tra chairs,  the  murmurs  of  the  Sancerrois  began  to 
be  heard,  Lousteau  saw  Bianchon  lost  in  thought  in- 
spired by  the  envelope  of  the  proofs. 

"  What  have  you  there  ?  "  said  Etienne  to  him. 

"Why  here  is  the  prettiest  story  in  the  world 
contained  in  a  waste  printed  sheet  which  covers 
your  proofs.  See,  read :  Olympia,  or  the  Roman 
Vengeances." 

"  Let  us  see,"  said  Lousteau,  taking  the  piece  of 
the  waste  sheet  which  the  doctor  handed  him,  and 
reading  aloud  this  : 

IO4  OLYMPIA, 

cavern.  Rinaldo,  indignant  at  the  cowardice  of  his 
companions,  who  were  brave  only  in  the  open  air 
and  dared  not  venture  into  Rome,  threw  upon  them 
a  glance  of  scorn. 

"  I  am  then  alone  ? — "  he  said  to  them. 

He  appeared  to  reflect,  then  he  resumed  : 

"  You  are  cowards  !  I  will  go  alone,  and  I  alone 
shall  have  this  rich  prey. — You  hear  me  ! — Adieu." 

"  O,  Captain  ! — "  said  Lamberti,  "  if  you  should  be 
taken  without  having  succeeded  ? — " 

•'  God  will  protect  me  ! — "  replied  Rinaldo,  point- 
ing to  Heaven. 

At  these  words,  he  went  out  hastily  and  en- 
countered on  the  road  the  intendant  of  Bracciano 
'3 


194     THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

"  The  page  is  ended,"  said  Lousteau,  to  whom 
everybody  had  listened  religiously. 

"  He  is  reading  us  his  work,"  said  Gatien  to  the 
son  of  Madame  Popinot-Chandier. 

"  From  the  first  words  it  is  evident,  mesdames," 
said  the  journalist,  seizing  the  occasion  to  mystify 
the  Sancerrois,  "  that  the  brigands  are  in  a  cavern. 
How  carelessly  the  romancers  then  treated  the  de- 
tails, which  to-day  are  so  curiously,  so  lengthily  ob- 
served under  the  pretext  of  local  color !  If  the 
robbers  are  in  a  cavern,  instead  of  pointing  to  Heaven, 
it  should  have  been,  pointed  to  the  vault.  Notwith- 
standing this  incorrection,  Rinaldo  seems  to  me  to  be 
a  man  of  execution,  and  his  apostrophe  to  God 
smells  of  Italy.  There  was  in  this  romance  a  suspi- 
cion of  local  color.  Peste  !  brigands,  a  cavern,  a 
Lamberti  who  calculates. — I  see  a  whole  vaudeville 
in  that  page.  Add  to  these  first  elements  a  bit  of 
intrigue,  a  young  peasant  girl  with  her  hair  turned 
up,  with  short  petticoats,  and  a  hundred  detestable 
couplets. — Oh,  good  Lord !  how  the  public  would 
come.  And  then  Rinaldo — how  well  that  name 
would  suit  Lafont !  In  supposing  him  to  have  black 
whiskers,  tight  pantaloons,  a  cloak,  moustaches,  a 
pistol  and  a  pointed  hat ;  if  the  director  of  the  Vaude- 
ville has  the  courage  to  pay  for  a  few  notices 
in  the  journals,  there  are  fifty  representations 
secured  for  the  Vaudeville  and  six  thousand  francs 
of  royalty  for  the  author  if  I  am  willing  to  speak 
well  of  the  piece  in  my  feuilleton.  We  will  con- 
tinue : 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  195 

OR  THE  ROMAN  VENGEAN'CES.  I97 

The  Duchesse  de  Bracciano  had  found  her  glove 
again.  Certainly,  Adolphe,  who  had  brought  her 
back  to  the  orange  grove,  might  think  that  there  was 
some  coquetry  in  this  forgetfulness,  for  then  the 
grove  was  deserted.  The  noise  of  the  fete  was 
heard  vaguely  in  the  distance.  The  fantoccini  an- 
nounced had  drawn  all  the  guests  into  the  gallery. 
Never  had  Olympia  appeared  more  beautiful  to  her 
lover.  Their  glances,  animated  by  the  same  fire, 
comprehended  each  other.  There  was  a  moment 
of  silence  delicious  for  their  souls,  and  impossible  to 
depict.  They  seated  themselves  on  the  same  bench 
where  they  had  found  themselves  in  the  presence  of 
the  Chevalier  de  Paluzzi  and  of  the  mocking  jesters 


"  Malepeste !  I  see  no  more  of  our  Rinaldo,"  ex- 
claimed Lousteau.  "But  what  progress  in  the 
understanding  of  the  intrigue  would  not  a  literary 
man  make  at  a  gallop  over  this  page  ?  The  Duchess 
Olympia  is  a  woman  who  could  forget  designedly  her 
gloves  in  a  deserted  grove  !  " 

"  Unless  placed  between  the  oyster  and  the 
under-head-clerk  in  an  office,  the  two  creations 
having  the  greatest  resemblance  to  marble  in  the 
zoological  kingdom,  it  is  impossible  not  to  recognize 
in  Olympia — "  said  Bianchon. 

"A  woman  of  thirty!"  said  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye  quickly,  fearing  a  too-medical  epithet. 

"Adolphe  then  is  twenty-two,"  replied  the 
doctor,  "for  an  Italian  woman  of  thirty  is  like  a 
Parisienne  of  forty." 

"  With  these  two  suppositions  the  romance  can  be 
reconstructed,"     resumed    Lousteau.     "  And    this 


196  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

Chevalier  de  Paluzzi,  what  do  you  think  of  him  ? — 
what  a  man  !  In  these  two  pages  the  style  is  feeble, 
the  author  was  perhaps  an  employe  of  the  bureau  of 
indirect  taxes,  he  wrote  the  romance  to  pay  his 
tailor." 

"  There  was  a  censure  at  that  time,"  said  Bian- 
chon,  "and  we  should  be  as  indulgent  for  the  man 
who  passed  under  the  scissors  of  1805  as  for  those 
who  went  to  the  scaffold  in  1793." 

"  Do  you  understand  anything  of  it  ?  "  timidly 
asked  Madame  Gorju,  the  mayor's  wife,  of  Madame 
de  Clagny. 

The  wife  of  the  procureur  du  roi,  who,  according 
to  Monsieur  Gravier's  expression,  would  have  put 
to  flight  a  young  Cossack  in  18 14,  settled  herself 
on  her  haunches  like  a  horseman  in  his  stirrups 
and  pursed  her  mouth  at  her  neighbor  as  if  to  say  : 
"We  are  looked  at!  let  us  smile  as  if  we  under- 
stood." 

"It  is  charming!"  said  the  mayor's  wife  to 
Gatien.     "  Please,  Monsieur  Lousteau,  continue  !  " 

Lousteau  looked  at  the  two  women,  two  real 
Indian  idols,  and  was  able  to  preserve  his  gravity. 
He  thought  it  necessary  to  cry  :  "  Attention  !  "  as 
he  thus  resumed  : 

OR  THE  ROMAN  VENGEANCES.  20Q 

dress  rustled  in  the  silence.  Suddenly  the  Cardinal 
Borborigano  appeared  before  the  eyes  of  the  duchess. 
His  countenance  was  sombre,  his  forehead  seemed 
clouded,  and  a  bitter  smile  designed  itself  upon  his 
lips. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  197 

"  Madame,"  he  said,  "you  are  suspected.  If  you 
are  guilty,  fly  !  if  you  are  not,  fly  anyhow,  because, 
virtuous  or  criminal,  you  will  be  much  better  able  to 
defend  yourself  at  a  distance —  " 

"  I  thank  your  Eminence  for  your  solicitude,"  she 
said  ;  "  the  Due  de  Bracciano  will  reappear  when  it 
shall  seem  to  me  necessary  to  show  that  he  still 
exists." 

"The  Cardinal  Borborigano  !  "  cried  Bianchon. 
"  By  the  keys  of  the  Pope  !  if  you  do  not  agree 
with  me  that  there  is  to  be  found  a  magnificent  cre- 
ation solely  in  the  name,  if  you  do  not  see  in  these 
words  dress  rustled  in  the  silence!  all  the  poetry  of 
the  role  of  Schedoni  invented  by  Madame  Radcliffe 
in  The  Confessional  of  the  Black  Penitents,  you  are 
unworthy  to  read  romances." 

"For  my  part,"  said  Dinah,  who  was  moved  to 
pity  for  the  eighteen  countenances  which  regarded 
the  two  Parisians,  "  I  can  see  the  story  go  on.  I  un- 
derstand it  all, — I  am  in  Rome,  I  see  the  body  of  the 
assassinated  husband  whose  wife,  audacious  and 
perverted,  has  set  up  her  bed  over  a  volcano. 
Every  night,  at  every  pleasure,  she  says  to  herself  : 
'  Everything  will  now  be  discovered  ! '  " 

"  Do  you  see  her  ?  "  cried  Lousteau,  "embracing 
this  Monsieur  Adolphe  ?  She  clasps  him  tightly, 
she  wishes  to  put  all  her  life  into  one  kiss ! — 
Adolphe  seems  to  me  to  be  an  irreproachable  young 
man,  but  one  without  spirit,  one  of  those  young 
people  such  as  they  require  at  the  Italiennes. 
Rinaldo  hovers  over  the  intrigue  with  which  we  are 
not  acquainted,  but  which  should  be  as  full-bodied 


198  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

as  that  of  a  melodrama  by  Pixerecourt.  We  can 
imagine,  moreover,  that  Rinaldo  passes  at  the  back 
of  the  theatre,  like  a  personage  in  one  of  Victor 
Hugo's  dramas." 

"  And  he  is  the  husband  perhaps,"  cried  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye. 

"  Do  you  understand  anything  of  all  that  ?  " 
asked  Madame  Piedefer  of  the  president's  wife. 

"  It  is  charming,"  said  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  to 
her  mother. 

All  the  natives  of  Sancerre  opened  their  eyes 
wide,  like  hundred-sous  pieces. 

"  Continue,  please,"  said  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye. 

Lousteau  continued  : 

210  OLYMPIA, 

"  Your  key  !  —  " 

"  Have  you  lost  it  ?  " 

"  It  is  in  the  grove —  " 

"  Let  us  run —  " 

"  Could  the  cardinal  have  taken  it  ?  " 

"  No. — Here  it  is — " 

"  What  a  danger  we  have  escaped  !  " 

Olympia  looked  at  the  key,  she  thought  she  rec- 
ognized her  own  ;  but  Rinaldo  had  changed  it ; 
his  stratagem  had  succeeded,  he  possessed  the 
real  key.  A  modern  Cartouche,  he  had  as  much 
skilfulness  as  courage,  and  suspecting  that  only 
the  possession  of  considerable  treasures  could 
oblige  a  duchess  to  carry  it  always  at  her  girdle 

"Look! — "  exclaimed  Lousteau.  "The  page 
which  constitutes  the  following  recto  is  not  here, 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  199 

there  is   nothing  to  relieve  us  of  our  anxiety  but 
page  212  : 


"  If  the  key  had  been  lost !  " 

"  He  would  be  dead —  " 

"  Dead !  would  you  not  grant  the  last  prayer  which 
he  addressed  to  you,  and  give  him  liberty  on  the  con- 
ditions that  he — " 

"  You  do  not  know  him —  " 

"  But—  " 

"  Be  still.  I  have  taken  you  for  a  lover  and  not  for 
a  confessor." 

Adolphe  became  silent. 

"  Then  here  is  a  Love  mounted  on  a  she-goat 
that  gallops,  a  vignette  designed  by  Normand,  en- 
graved by  Duplat —  Oh  !  the  names  are  here," 
said  Lousteau. 

"  Well,  what  is  the  end  of  it  ?  "  said  those  of  the 
auditors  who  understood. 

"But  the  chapter  is  ended,"  replied  Lousteau. 
"  The  circumstance  of  the  vignette  changes  com- 
pletely my  opinions  concerning  the  author.  In 
order  to  have  obtained,  under  the  Empire,  vignettes 
engraved  on  wood,  the  author  must  have  been  a 
Councillor  of  State,  or  Madame  Barthelemy-Hadot, 
the  late  Desforges  or  Sewrin." 

"  Adolphe  became  silent! —  Ah  !  "  said  Bianchon, 
"the  duchess  is  less  than  thirty." 

"If  there  is  no  more,  invent  an  ending!"  said 
Madame  de  la  Baudraye. 

"But,"  said  Lousteau,  "the  waste  sheet  has 
been  printed  only  on  one  side.     In  the  manner  of 


200  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

printing,  the  second  side,  or,  to  make  you  under- 
stand better,  see,  the  reverse  which  should  have 
been  printed,  has  in  fact  received  an  incommensur- 
able number  of  separate  impressions,  it  belongs  to 
that  class  of  sheets  known  as  making  ready.  As  it 
would  be  horribly  long  to  instruct  you  in  what  con- 
sists the  irregularity  of  a  making  ready  sheet,  know 
that  it  can  no  more  preserve  the  impression  of  the 
first  twelve  pages  which  the  pressmen  have  printed 
on  it  than  you  could  keep  any  remembrance  what- 
ever of  the  first  blow  with  the  stick  which  you 
had  received  if  some  pacha  had  condemned  you  to 
receive  a  hundred  and  fifty  on  the  soles  of  the 
feet." 

"  I  am  going  crazy,"  said  Madame  Popinot-Chan- 
dier  to  Monsieur  Gravier ;  "lam  trying  to  explain 
to  myself  the  Councillor  of  State,  the  cardinal,  the 
key  and  this  waste  sheet — " 

"  You  have  not  the  key  to  this  jest,"  said  Mon- 
sieur Gravier;  "well,  neither  have  I,  fair  lady, 
reassure  yourself." 

"  But  there  is  another  sheet,"  said  Bianchon,  who 
looked  at  the  table  on  which  the  proofs  lay. 

"  Good  !  "  said  Lousteau,  "  it  is  whole  and  entire  ! 
It  is  signed  IV.  ;  J.  2d  edition.  Ladies,  the  IV.  in- 
dicates the  fourth  volume.  The  J,  tenth  letter  of 
the  alphabet,  the  tenth  sheet.  It  appears  to  me  to 
be  proven  from  this  that  this  romance  in  four  volumes 
in  i2mo,  barring  tricks  of  the  publishers,  must  have 
been  successful,  since  there  have  been  two  editions. 
Let  us  read  and  decipher  this  enigma  : 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  201 

OR  THE   ROMAN  VENGEANCES.  217 

corridor  ;  but  feeling  that  he  was  pursued  by  the 
attendants  of  the  duchess,  Rinaldo 

"Go  on!" 

"  Oh  !  "  said  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  "  there 
have  been  important  events  between  your  piece  of 
the  waste  sheet  and  this  page." 

"Say  rather,  madame,  this  precious  good  sheet! 
But  did  that  waste  sheet  in  which  the  duchess  for- 
got her  gloves  in  the  grove  belong  to  the  fourth 
volume  ?     Oh  !  the  devil !  let  us  continue  :  " 

could  think  of  no  asylum  more 
secure  than  to  descend  immediately  into  the  subter- 
ranean crypts  in  which  should  be  contained  the 
treasures  of  the  house  of  Bracciano.  Light  of  foot 
as  the  Camille  of  the  Latin  poet,  he  fled  toward  the 
mysterious  entrance  of  the  baths  of  Vespasian.  Al- 
ready the  torches  were  lighting  the  walls  when  the 
adroit  Rinaldo,  discovering,  with  the  perspicacity 
with  which  nature  had  endowed  him,  the  door 
hidden  in  the  wall,  promptly  disappeared.  A 
horrible  thought  lit  up  the  soul  of  Rinaldo,  like 
the  lightning  flash  when  it  rends  the  clouds  asun- 
der.    He  was  imprisoned  !—     He  felt  along  the 

"  Oh !  this  good  sheet  is  the  piece  of  the  waste 
sheet  which  follows  !  The  last  page  of  the  piece  is 
212,  and  we  have  here  217  !  And,  in  fact,  if  in  the 
waste  sheet,  Rinaldo,  who  has  stolen  the  key  of  the 
duchess's  treasures  by  substituting  another  very 
like  it,  finds  himself,  in  this  good  sheet,  in  the 
palace  of  the  Dues  de  Bracciano,  the  romance  ap- 
pears to  me  to  be  drawing  toward  some  conclusion 
or  other.     I  hope  this  is  as  clear  to  you  as  it  has 


202  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

become  to  me —  For  me,  the  fete  is  over,  the  two 
lovers  have  returned  to  the  palace  Bracciano,  it  is 
night,  it  is  one  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Rinaldo  is 
going  to  make  a  good  stroke  !  " 

"  And  Adolphe  ? — "  said  the  president  Boirouge, 
who  had  the  reputation  of  being  somewhat  quick  in 
repartee. 

"And  what  literary  style!"  said  Bianchon, — 
Rinaldo  who  found  the  asylum  to  descend  ! 

"Evidently  neither  Maradan,  nor  the  Treuttels 
and  Wurtz,  nor  Doguereau  printed  this  romance," 
said  Lousteau  ;  "for  they  had  in  their  pay  proof- 
readers who  corrected  their  proofs,  a  luxury  which 
our  present  publishers  should  certainly  give  them- 
selves, the  authors  df  to-day  would  be  marvellously 
well  suited  by  it.  That  must  have  been  some  small 
job-printer  of  the  Quai — " 

"What  Quai?"  said  a  lady  to  her  neighbor. 
"  They  were  speaking  of  baths. — " 

"  Go  on,"  said  Madame  de  la  Baudraye. 

"  In  any  case,  it  is  not  by  a  Councillor  of  State," 
said  Bianchon. 

"  It  is  perhaps  by  Madame  Hadot,"  said  Lousteau. 

"Why  do  they  drag  in  Madame  Hadot  of  La 
Charite  ?  "  asked  the  president's  wife  of  her  son. 

"  This  Madame  Hadot,  my  dear  Madame  Presi- 
dente,"  replied  the  chatelaine,  "was  a  female 
author  who  lived  under  the  Consulate — " 

"Women  wrote,  then,  under  the  Emperor?" 
asked  Madame  Popinot-Chandier. 

"  And   Madame    de    Genlis  ?     and    Madame   de 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  203 

Stael  ? "  said  the  procureur  du  roi,  piqued  for 
Dinah's  sake,  at  this  observation. 

"Ah!" 

"  Go  on,  please,"  said  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  to 
Lousteau. 

Lousteau  resumed  his  reading,  saying:  "Page 
218." 

218  OLYMPIA, 

wall  with  an  anxious  precipitation,  and  uttered  a  cry 
of  despair  when  he  had  vainly  sought  for  traces  of 
the  secret  lock.  It  was  impossible  for  him  to  refuse 
to  recognize  the  frightful  truth.  The  door,  skilfully 
contrived  to  serve  the  vengeances  of  the  duchess, 
could  not  be  opened  from  the  inside.  Rinaldo 
pressed  his  cheek  to  several  apertures  and  could  feel 
nowhere  the  warm  air  of  the  gallery.  He  hoped  to 
find  a  crack  which  would  indicate  to  him  the  place 
where  the  wall  ended,  but,  nothing,  nothing  ! — the 
partition  seemed  to  be  a  solid  block  of  marble. — 

Then,  there  escaped  from  him  the  dull  growling 
of  a  hyena 

"  Well,  we  thought  we  had  recently  invented  the 
cries  of  the  hyena  !  "  said  Lousteau  ;  "  the  literature 
of  the  Empire  was  already  acquainted  with  them, 
even  brought  them  into  action  with  a  certain  talent  in 
natural  history,  which  is  proved  by  the  word  dull." 

"  Do  not  make  any  reflections,  monsieur,"  said 
Madame  de  la  Baudraye. 

"Oh!  there  you  are!"  cried  Bianchon,  "the 
interest,  that  monster  of  romances,  has  put  its  hand 
on  your  collar,  as  it  did  on  mine  just  now." 

"  Read  !  "  cried  the  procureur  du  roi,  "  I  under- 
stand." 


204  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  The  ass  !  "  said  the  president  in  the  ear  of  his 
neighbor,  the  sous-prefet. 

"  He  wishes  to  flatter  Madame  de  la  Baudraye," 
replied  the  new  sous-prefet. 

"  Well,  I  will  read  continuously,"  said  Lousteau 
solemnly. 

The  journalist  was  listened  to  in  the  most  pro- 
found silence  : 

OR  THE   ROMAN  VENGEANCES.  2IO. 

A  profound  sigh  replied  to  Rinaldo's  cry  ;  but,  in 
his  agitation,  he  took  it  for  an  echo,  so  very  feeble 
and  hollow  was  this  sigh  !  it  could  not  have  issued 
from  a  human  chest. — 

"  Santa  Maria  !  "  said  the  unknown. 

"  If  I  quit  this  place,  I  shall  never  be  able  to  find  it 
again  !  "  thought  Rinaldo  when  he  had  recovered  his 
usual  self-possession.  "  If  I  knock,  I  shall  be  detect- 
ed.   What  is  to  be  done  ? " 

"  Who  is  there  ? "  asked  the  voice. 

"  Hein  ! "  said  the  brigand,  "  do  the  toads  speak 
here  ?  " 

"  I  am  the  Due  de  Bracciano  !    Whoever  you  are, 

220  OLYMPIA, 

if  you  do  not  belong  to  the  duchess,  come,  in  the 
name  of  all  the  saints,  come  to  me  ! " 

"It  would  be  necessary  to  know  where  you  are, 
monseigneur  le  due,"  replied  Rinaldo  with  the  im- 
pertinence of  a  man  who  sees  that  he  is  necessary 
for  something. 

"  I  see  you,  my  friend,  for  my  eyes  are  accustomed 
to  the  obscurity.  Listen,  walk  straight  ahead  of  you. 
—Good. — Turn  to  the  left — Come — here. — Now  we 
are  together." 

Rinaldo,  keeping  his  hands  prudently  outstretched 
in  front  of  him,  felt  iron  bars. 

"  I  am  deceived  !  "  cried  the  bandit. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  205 

OR  THE   ROMAN  VENGEANCES.  221 

"  No,  you  have  only  touched  my  cage. — Sit  down 
on  that  marble  shaft  there." 

"  How  can  the  Due  de  Bracciano  be  in  a  cage  ?" 
asked  the  bandit. 

"  My  friend,  I  have  been  standing  up  for  thirty 
months,  without  being  able  to  sit  down.— But  who 
are  you  ?  " 

"  I  am  Rinaldo,  the  prince  of  the  Campagna,  the 
chief  of  eighty  brave  men,  whom  the  laws  wrongly 
call  scoundrels,  whom  all  ladies  admire,  and  whom 
the  judges  hang  through  force  of  habit." 

"  God  be  praised  ! — I  am  saved. — An  honest  man 
would  have  been  afraid,  whilst  I  am  certain  of  being 


able  to  come  to  a  very  good  understanding  with 
you,"  exclaimed  the  duke.  "  Oh,  my  dear  liberator, 
you  must  be  armed  to  the  teeth. — " 

"  E  verissimo  I " 

"  Have  you  some  ? — " 

"Yes,  files,  pincers. — Corpo  di  Bacco  !  I  came  to 
borrow  indefinitely  the  treasures  of  the  Bracciani." 

"  You  will  have,  legitimately,  a  good  share,  my  dear 
Rinaldo,  and  perhaps  I  shall  go  and  hunt  men  in 
your  company. — " 

"  You  surprise  me,  Excellence  ! — " 

"  Listen  to  me,  Rinaldo !  I  will  not  speak  to  you 
of  the  desire  for  vengeance  which  gnaws  at  my 

OR  THE   ROMAN  VENGEANCES.  223 

heart ;  I  have  been  here  for  thirty  months — you  are 
Italian  ? — you  will  comprehend  me  !  Ah  !  my  friend, 
my  fatigue  and  my  frightful  captivity  are  nothing  in 
comparison  with  the  evil  which  devours  my  heart. 
The  Duchesse  de  Bracciano  is  still  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  women  in  Rome,  I  am  sufficiently  in  love 
with  her  to  be  jealous  of  her. — " 

"  You,  her  husband  ! — " 

"  Yes,  I  was  wrong,  perhaps  ?  " 


206  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  Certainly,  that  is  not  usual,"  said  Rinaldo. 

"  My  jealousy  was  excited  by  the  conduct  of  the 
duchess,"  resumed  the  duke.  "  The  result  has 
proved  that  I  was  right.     A  young  Frenchman  loved 

"A  thousand  pardons!  ladies,"  said  Lousteau ; 
"  but,  do  you  see,  it  is  impossible  for  me  not  to  call 
your  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  literature  of  the 
Empire  went  straight  to  the  fact  without  any  details, 
which  seems  to  me  to  be  one  of  the  characteristics  of 
primitive  times.  The  literature  of  that  epoch  held 
the  middle  position  between  the  summary  of  the 
chapters  of  Telemaque  and  the  requisitions  of  the 
public  ministry.  It  had  ideas,  but  it  did  not  express 
them,  the  scornful  one  !  It  observed,  but  it  did  not 
communicate  its  observations  to  anyone,  the  miser ! 
There  was  only  Fouche  who  communicated  his  ob- 
servations to  anyone.  Literature  then  contented 
itself,  according  to  the  expression  of  one  of  the  most 
idiotic  critics  of  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  with  a 
sufficiently  pure  sketch  and  with  a  very  well  defined 
contour  of  all  the  figures  in  the  antique  manner ;  it  did 
not  dance  upon  the  periods  !  I  can  very  well  believe 
it,  it  had  no  periods,  it  had  no  words  to  change  color 
according  to  the  varying  aspects  of  things  ;  it  said  to 
you  :  '  Lubin  loved  Toinette,  Toinette  did  not  love 
Lubin  ;  Lubin  killed  Toinette,  and  the  gendarmes 
took  Lubin,  who  was  put  in  prison,  tried  before  the 
court  of  assizes  and  guillotined.'  A  strong  sketch,  a 
well  defined  contour !  What  a  fine  drama  !  Well, 
to-day,  the  barbarians  make  the  words — les  mots — 
change  color  at  different  times." 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  207 

"And  sometimes  the  dead — les  marts — ,"  said 
Monsieur  de  Clagny. 

"Ah!"  replied  Lousteau,  "you  give  yourself 
those  R's  ?  " 

"  What  does  he  say  ?  "  asked  Madame  de  Clagny, 
made  uneasy  by  this  pun. 

"It  seems  to  me  that  I  am  walking  in  a  dark 
room,"  replied  the  mayor's  wife. 

"  His  joke  would  be  lost  if  it  were  explained," 
observed  Gatien. 

"To-day,"  resumed  Lousteau,  "the  romancers 
design  the  characters ;  and,  instead  of  the  well- 
defined  contour,  they  unveil  to  you  the  human 
heart,  they  interest  you,  it  may  be  in  Toinette,  it 
may  be  in  Lubin." 

"  For  my  part,  I  am  terrified  at  the  education  of 
the  public  in  matters  of  literature,"  said  Bianchon. 
"  Like  the  Russians  beaten  by  Charles  XII.  who 
ended  by  learning  how  to  make  war,  the  reader  has 
ended  by  learning  the  art.  Formerly,  interest  only 
was  asked  for  in  romance  ;  as  to  the  style,  no  one 
thought  of  it,  not  even  the  author  ;  as  to  ideas,  zero  ; 
as  to  local  color,  nothing.  Insensibly  the  reader 
came  to  require  style,  interest,  the  pathetic,  positive 
knowledge  ;  he  exacted  the  literary  five  senses, — in- 
vention, style,  thought,  knowledge,  sentiment ; 
then  criticism  came,  to  complete  everything.  The 
critic,  incapable  of  inventing  anything  but  calumnies, 
pretended  that  every  work  that  did  not  emanate 
from  a  complete  brain  was  halting.  Some  charla- 
tans,  like  Walter  Scott,  who  could  unite  the  five 


208  THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

literary  senses,  then  showed  themselves  ;  those  who 
had  wit  only,  knowledge  only,  style  only,  or  senti- 
ment only,  these  limping  ones,  these  acephalous, 
these  maimed,  these  literary  blind-of-an-eye,  set 
themselves  to  crying  that  everything  was  lost,  they 
preached  crusades  against  those  individuals  who 
were  spoiling  the  trade,  and  they  denied  their 
works." 

"  It  is  the  history  of  your  last  literary  quarrels," 
observed  Dinah. 

"  For  goodness'  sake  !  "  cried  Monsieur  de  Clagny, 
"  let  us  return  to  the  Due  de  Bracciano." 

To  the  great  despair  of  the  assembly,  Lousteau 
resumed  the  reading  of  the  good  sheet: 

224  OLYMPIA, 

Olympia,  he  was  loved  by  her,  I  had  proofs  of  their 
mutual  affection. — 

Then,  I  wished  to  assure  myself  of  my  misfortune, 
so  that  I  might  avenge  myself  under  the  wing  of 
Providence  and  of  the  law.  The  duchess  divined  my 
projects.  We  combated  each  other  in  thought  be- 
fore we  combated  poison  in  hand.  We  wished 
mutually  to  inspire  in  each  other  a  confidence  which 
we  did  not  feel, — I,  to  get  her  to  drink,  she,  to  get 
possession  of  me.  She  was  a  woman,  she  succeeded  ; 
for  the  women  have  one  more  trap  to  set  than  we 
have,  and  I  fell  into  it :  I  was  happy ;  but  the  next 
morning  I  woke  up  in  this  iron  cage.     I  roared  like 

OR  THE  ROMAN  VENGEANCES.  22$ 

a  lion  during  the  whole  of  the  day  in  the  obscurity 
of  this  cave,  which  is  situated  under  the  bed-chamber 
of  the  duchess.  In  the  evening,  lifted  by  a  counter- 
weight skilfully  managed,  I  was  carried  up  through 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  209 

the  flooring  and  saw,  in  the  arms  of  her  lover,  the 
duchess,  who  threw  me  a  morsel  of  bread,  my  pit- 
tance every  night  This  has  been  my  life  for  thirty 
months  !  In  this  prison  of  marble,  my  cries  are  un- 
able to  reach  any  ears.  There  is  no  chance  for  me. 
I  no  longer  hope  !  In  fact,  the  bed-chamber  of  the 
duchess  is  at  the  back  of  the  palace,  and  my  voice, 
when  I  ascend  there,  can  be  heard  by  no  one. 
Every  time  that  I  see  my  wife,  she  shows  me  the 

226  OLYMPIA, 

poison  that  I  had  prepared  for  her  and  for  her  lover ; 
I  ask  it  for  myself,  but  she  refuses  me  death,  she 
gives  me  bread  and  I  eat !  I  have  done  well 
to  eat,  to  live,  I  had  not  counted  upon  the  ban- 
dits !— " 

"  Yes,  Excellence,  when  those  imbeciles  of  honest 
people  are  asleep,  we  will  watch,  we — " 

"  Ah  !  Rinaldo,  all  my  treasures  are  yours,  we  will 
divide  them  like  brothers,  and  I  would  wish  to  give 
you  all — even  to  my  duchy — " 

"  Excellence  !  obtain  for  me  from  the  Pope  an  ab- 
solution in  articulo  mortis,  that  would  be  worth  more 
to  me  to  rely  upon." 

OR  THE   ROMAN   VENGEANCES.  227 

"  Whatever  you  like  ;  but  file  the  bars  of  my  cage, 
and  lend  me  your  poniard. — We  have  scarcely  time, 
work  quickly. — Ah  !  if  my  teeth  were  only  files. — I 
have  endeavored  to  bite  this  iron. — " 

"  Excellence!  "  said  Rinaldo,  hearing  the  duke's  last 
words,  "  I  have  already  sawed  through  a  bar." 

"  You  are  a  god  !  " 

"  Your  wife  was  at  the  fete  of  the  Princess  Villa- 
viciosa  ;  she  has  returned  with  her  little  Frenchman, 
she  is  intoxicated  with  love,  we  have  then  plenty  of 
time." 

"  Have  you  finished  ? " 

"Yes.—" 
14 


210  THE   MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

228  OLYMPIA, 

"  Your  poniard  ! "  asked  the  duke  quickly  of  the 
bandit. 

"  Here  it  is." 

"  Good." 

"  I  hear  the  noise  of  the  spring." 

"  Do  not  forget  me !  "  said  the  bandit,  who  was  not 
unacquainted  with  gratitude. 

"  No  more  than  my  father,"  said  the  duke. 

"  Adieu  !  "  said  Rinaldoto  him. — "  Ha  !  how  he  flies 
up  !  "  added  the  bandit  as  he  saw  the  duke  disappear. 
"  No  more  than  his  father,  did  he  say  ;  if  that  is  the  way 
that  he  counts  upon  remembering  me  !  Ah  !  I  had 
however  taken  an  oath  never  to  injure  women  ! — " 

OR  THE  ROMAN  VENGEANCES.  229 

But  let  us  leave  for  a  moment  the  bandit  to  his  re- 
flections, and  let  us  mount,  like  the  duke,  into  the 
apartments  of  the  palace. 

"  Here  is  another  vignette,  a  Love  mounted  upon 
a  snail !  Then  230  is  a  blank  page,"  said  the  jour- 
nalist. "  Here  are  two  other  blank  pages  taken  up 
by  this  title,  so  delicious  to  write  when  one  has  the 
happy  misfortune  to  make  romances  :  Conclusion!  " 

CONCLUSION. 

Never  had  the  duchess  been  so  pretty  ;  she  issued 
from  her  bath  clothed  like  a  goddess,  and  seeing 
Adolphe  lying  voluptuously  on  piles  of  cushions  : 

234  OLYMPIA, 

"You  are  very  beautiful,"  she  said  to  him. 

"  And  you,  Olympia ! — " 

"  You  love  me  still  ?  " 

"  Always  better,"  he  said. 

"  Ah  !  it  is  only  the  French  who  know  how  to 
love !  "  cried  the  duchess. — "  Will  you  love  me  well 
to-night  ?  " 

"Yes." 


THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  211 

"  Come  then  !  " 

And,  with  a  movement  of  hatred  and  of  love, 
whether  it  were  that  the  Cardinal  Borborigano  had 
more  keenly  reminded  her  of  her  husband,  whether 
it  were  that  she  felt  more  love  to  display  before  him, 
she  set  off  the  spring  and  extended  both  her  beauti- 
ful arms  quickly  toward 

"  That  is  all !  "  cried  Lousteau,  "  for  the  foreman 
has  torn  the  rest  in  wrapping  up  my  proofs  ;  but  it  is 
quite  sufficient  to  prove  to  us  that  the  author  gave 
hopes." 

"I  do  not  understand  anything  about  it,"  said 
Gatien  Boirouge,  who  was  the  first  to  break  the 
silence  maintained  by  the  Sancerrois. 

"  Nor  I,  either,"  replied  Monsieur  Gravier,  exas- 
perated. 

"  It  is,  however,  a  romance  written  under  the 
Empire,"  said  Lousteau  to  him. 

"  Oh  !  "  said  Monsieur  Gravier,  "  from  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  bandit  is  made  to  speak,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  author  was  not  acquainted  with  Italy. 
The  bandits  do  not  allow  themselves  such  concetti." 

Madame  Gorju  came  to  Bianchon,  whom  she  saw 
to  bethinking,  and  said,  indicating  to  him  Euphemie 
Gorju,  her  daughter,  endowed  with  a  sufficiently 
fine  dot  : 

"What  nonsense!  The  prescriptions  that  you 
write  out  are  worth  more  than  those  things." 

The  mayor's  wife  had  profoundly  meditated  this 
phrase  which,  as  she  thought,  betrayed  an  intelligent 
mind. 

"  Ah  !  madame,  we  should  be  indulgent,  for  we 


212  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

have  only  twenty  pages  out  of  a  thousand,"  replied 
Bianchon,  looking  at  Mademoiselle  Gorju,  whose 
figure  threatened  to  change  at  the  first  child-birth. 

"Well,  Monsieur  de  Clagny,"  said  Lousteau, 
"we  were  speaking  yesterday  of  vengeances  in- 
vented by  the  husbands,  what  do  you  say  of  those 
which  the  wives  invent  ?  " 

"  I  think,"  replied  the  procureur  du  roi,  "  that  the 
romance  is  not  by  a  Councillor  of  State,  but  by  a 
woman.  In  grotesque  conceptions,  the  imagination 
of  women  goes  farther  than  that  of  men,  witness  the 
Frankenstein  of  Mistress  Shelley,  Leone  Leoni,  the 
works  of  Anne  Radcliffe,  and  Le  Nouveau  Promethee 
of  Camille  Maupin." 

Dinah  looked  fixedly  at  Monsieur  de  Clagny, 
making  him  comprehend,  by  an  expression  which 
froze  him,  that,  notwithstanding  so  many  illustrious 
examples,  she  took  this  reflection  for  Paquita  la 
Sfvillane. 

"  Bah  !  "  said  the  little  La  Baudraye,  "the  Due 
de  Bracciano,  whom  his  wife  put  in  a  cage  and  to 
whom  she  showed  herself  every  night  in  the  arms 
of  her  lover,  is  going  to  kill  her. — You  call  that  a 
vengeance  ? — Our  tribunals  and  society  are  much 
more  cruel. — " 

"  In  what  ?  "  asked  Lousteau. 

"  Well,  see  the  little  La  Baudraye  talking,"  said 
the  president  Boirouge  to  his  wife. 

"Why,  the  woman  is  allowed  to  live  with  a 
meagre  allowance,  the  world  then  turns  its  back 
upon  her ;  she  has  no  longer  either  toilets  or  consid- 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  21 3 

eration,  two  things  which,  it  seems  to  me,  are  the 
whole  woman,"  said  the  little  old  man. 

"But  she  has  happiness,"  replied  Madame  de 
la  Baudraye  pompously. 

"  No,"  replied  the  abortion,  lighting  his  candle  to 
go  to  bed,  "  for  she  has  a  lover — " 

"  For  a  man  who  thinks  only  of  his  vine-sprigs 
and  his  saplings,  he  has  some  sharpness,"  said 
Lousteau. 

"  It  is  necessary  that  he  should  have  something," 
replied  Bianchon. 

Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  the  only  one  who  could 
understand  Bianchon's  speech,  began  to  laugh  so 
knowingly  and  so  bitterly  both  at  once,  that  the 
physician  divined  the  secret  of  the  inward  life  of  the 
chatelaine,  with  whose  premature  wrinkles  he  had 
been  preoccupied  since  the  morning.  But  Dinah 
herself,  did  not  in  the  least  divine  the  sinister  pre- 
dictions which  her  husband  had  thrown  out  to  her  in 
a  word,  and  which  the  late  good  Abbe  Duret  would 
not  have  failed  to  explain  to  her.  The  little  La  Bau- 
draye had  surprised  in  Dinah's  eyes,  when  she 
looked  at  the  journalist,  tossing  back  to  him  the  ball 
of  quick  repartee,  that  rapid  and  luminous  tender- 
ness which  gilds  a  woman's  glance  at  the  moment 
when  prudence  ceases,  or  when  impulse  commences. 

Dinah  paid  no  attention  to  the  invitation  which 
her  husband  extended  to  her  to  observe  the  proprie- 
ties, no  more  than  Lousteau  had  taken,  as  meant  for 
him,  the  malicious  opinions  of  Dinah  on  the  day  of 
his  arrival. 


214  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

Any  other  than  Bianchon  would  have  been  sur- 
prised at  Lousteau's  prompt  success ;  but  he  was 
not  even  offended  at  the  preference  which  Dinah 
gave  to  the  Feuilleton  over  the  Faculty,  so  much 
was  he  a  physician  !  In  fact,  Dinah,  great  herself, 
should  have  been  more  accessible  to  wit  than  to 
greatness.  Love  usually  prefers  contrasts  to  simili- 
tudes. The  frankness  and  the  good  nature  of  the 
doctor,  his  profession,  everything  was  against  him. 
For  this  reason, — the  women  who  wish  to  love,  and 
Dinah  wished  as  much  to  love  as  to  be  loved,  have 
an  instinctive  horror  of  men  devoted  to  tyran- 
nical occupations  ;  they  are,  notwithstanding  their 
superior  qualities,  always  women  in  the  matter  of 
encroachment.  Poet  and  feuilletonist,  the  libertine 
Lousteau,  set  off  by  his  misanthropy,  offered  that 
glitter  of  soul  and  that  semi-indolent  life  which 
please'  women.  The  square-cut  good  sense,  the 
perspicacious  regard  of  the  truly  superior  man,  an- 
noyed Dinah,  who  did  not  admit  her  smallness  to 
herself  ;  she  said  to  herself  : 

"The  doctor  is  perhaps  worth  more  than  the 
journalist,  but  he  pleases  me  less." 

Then  she  reflected  upon  the  duties  of  the  pro- 
fession and  asked  herself  if  a  woman  could  ever  be 
anything  more  than  a  subject  in  the  eyes  of  a  phy- 
sician, who  sees  so  many  subjects  in  the  course  of  his 
day  !  The  first  proposition  of  the  thought  written 
by  Bianchon  in  her  album  was  the  result  of  a  med- 
ical observation  which  fell  too  directly  upon  woman 
for  Dinah  not  to  be  struck  by  it.     Finally,  Bian- 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  21 5 

chon,  whose  practice  forbade  him  a  longer  sojourn, 
was  going  to  leave  on  the  morrow.  What  woman, 
unless  she  received  in  the  heart  the  mythological 
shaft  of  Cupid,  could  decide  in  so  short  a  time. 
Those  little  things,  which  produce  the  great  catas- 
trophes, once  perceived  in  their  entirety  by  Bian- 
chon,  he  related  to  Lousteau  in  four  words  the  sin- 
gular decree  which  he  had  pronounced  on  Madame  de 
la  Baudraye  and  which  caused  the  most  lively  sur- 
prise to  the  journalist.  Whilst  the  two  Parisians 
were  whispering  together,  a  storm  against  the  chate- 
laine was  rising  among  the  Sancerrois,  who  had 
comprehended  nothing  of  the  paraphrase  or  of  the 
commentaries  of  Lousteau.  Far  from  perceiving  in 
them  the  romance  which  the  procureur  du  roi,  the 
sous-prefet,  the  president,  the  first  deputy  Lebas, 
Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  and  Dinah  had  drawn 
from  it,  all  the  women  grouped  around  the  tea  table 
saw  in  it  only  a  mystification,  and  accused  the 
muse  of  Sancerre  of  having  had  a  hand  in  it.  All  of 
them  had  expected  to  pass  a  charming  evening,  all 
of  them  had  uselessly  made  tense  all  the  faculties  of 
their  minds.  Nothing  revolts  the  people  of  the 
provinces  more  than  the  idea  of  serving  to  amuse 
the  people  of  Paris. 

Madame  Piedefer  left  the  tea  table  to  come  to  say 
to  her  daughter : 

"Come  now  and  talk  to  these  ladies,  they  are 
very  much  shocked  at  your  conduct." 

Lousteau  could  not  but  notice  at  this  moment  the 
evident  superiority  of  Dinah  over  the  elite   of  the 


2l6  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

women  of  Sancerre,  she  was  better  attired,  her 
movements  were  full  of  grace,  her  skin  took  a  deli- 
cious whiteness  in  the  lights.  She  detached  herself, 
in  short,  against  this  background  of  tapestry  of  old 
faces,  of  young  girls  badly  dressed,  with  timid  man- 
ners, like  a  queen  in  the  midst  of  her  court.  The 
Parisian  images  effaced  themselves,  Lousteau  lent 
himself  to  the  life  of  the  provinces ;  and,  if  he  had 
too  much  imagination  not  to  be  impressed  by  the 
royal  magnificence  of  this  chateau,  by  its  exquisite 
sculptures,  by  the  antique  beauties  of  the  interior, 
he  had  also  too  much  knowledge  to  be  ignorant  of  the 
value  of  the  furniture  which  enriched  this  jewel  of 
the  Renaissance.  Thus,  when  the  Sancerrois  had 
retired  one  by  one, .conducted  out  by  Dinah,  for 
they  all  had  an  hour's  journey  before  them  ;  when 
there  were  present  in  the  salon  only  the  procureur 
du  roi,  Monsieur  Lebas,  Gatien  and  Monsieur  Gra- 
vier,  who  were  to  sleep  at  Anzy,  the  journalist  had 
already  changed  his  opinion  concerning  Dinah. 
His  mind  evolved  even  this, — that  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  had  had  the  audacity  to  signalize  him  at 
their  first  meeting. 

"  Ah  !  how  they  are  going  to  talk  against  us  on 
the  road  !  "  exclaimed  the  chatelaine,  re-entering  the 
salon,  after  having  put  into  their  carriages  the 
president,  the  president's  wife,  Madame  and  Made- 
moiselle Popinot-Chandier. 

The  remainder  of  the  evening  had  its  enjoyable 
side.  In  friendly  converse,  each  one  turned  into  the 
conversation  his  contingent  of  epigrams  upon  the 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  217 

various  countenances  which  the  Sancerrois  had 
taken  on  during  Lousteau's  commentaries  upon  the 
envelope  of  his  proofs. 

"  My  dear  fellow,"  said  Bianchon,  as  they  retired, 
to  Lousteau, — they  had  been  put  together  into  an 
immense  chamber  with  two  beds,  "you  will  be  the 
happy  mortal  chosen  by  that  woman,  nee  Piede- 
fer !  " 

"You  think  so  ?" 

"  Eh  !  that  can  be  explained, — you  are  believed 
here  to  have  had  a  great  many  adventures  in  Paris, 
and,  for  the  women,  there  is  in  the  men  of  gal- 
lantry I  know  not  what  of  irritating  which  attracts 
them  and  makes  him  agreeable  to  them  ;  is  it  the 
vanity  of  wishing  to  erect  their  souvenirs  triumph- 
antly among  all  the  others  ?  do  they  address  them- 
selves to  his  experience,  as  a  sick  person  overpays  a 
celebrated  physician  ?  or  are  they  indeed  flattered 
to  awaken  a  blase  heart  ? ' ' 

"  The  senses  and  vanity  count  for  so  much  in  love 
that  all  those  suppositions  may  be  true,"  replied 
Lousteau.  "But,  if  I  stay  here,  it  is  because  of 
that  certificate  of  learned  innocence  which  you  award 
Dinah  !     She  is  beautiful,  is  she  not  ?  " 

"She  would  become  charming  in  loving,"  said 
the  doctor.  "  Then,  after  all,  she  will  be,  one  day 
or  another,  a  rich  widow  !  And  a  child  would  be 
worth  to  her  the  enjoyment  of  the  fortune  of  the 
lord  of  La  Baudraye." 

"  Why,  it  is  a  good  action,  to  love  her,  this 
woman  !  "  exclaimed  Lousteau. 


2l8  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  Once  a  mother,  she  would  regain  her  plump- 
ness, the  wrinkles  would  disappear,  she  would  ap- 
pear to  be  only  twenty  years  old — " 

"Well,"  said  Lousteau,  rolling  himself  in  his 
bed-clothes,  "  if  you  will  aid  me,  to-morrow,  yes, 
to-morrow,  I —     In  short,  good-night." 


The  next  day,  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  to  whom, 
some  six  months  before,  her  husband  had  given 
horses  which  he  used  for  his  work  and  an  old  calash 
whose  iron-work  rattled,  conceived  the  idea  of  driv- 
ing Bianchon  as  far  as  Cosne,  where  he  was  to  take 
the  diligence  for  Lyons  on  his  journey.  She  took 
along  her  mother  and  Lousteau  ;  but  she  proposed 
to  leave  her  mother  at  La  Baudraye,  to  go  on  to 
Cosne  with  the  two  Parisians  and  to  return  alone 
with  Etienne.  She  assumed  a  charming  toilet  which 
the  journalist  observed  carefully, — laced  bronze 
boots,  stockings  of  gray  silk,  an  organdie  dress,  a 
green  scarf  with  long  shaded  fringes,  and  a  charm- 
ing capote  in  black  lace,  ornamented  with  flowers. 
As  for  Lousteau,  the  rogue  had  put  himself  on  a  war 
footing, — varnished  boots,  pantaloons  of  English 
cloth  creased  in  front,  a  very  open  waistcoat  which 
revealed  an  extra-fine  shirt  and  the  cascades  of  black 
satin  broche  of  his  finest  cravat,  a  black  redingote, 
very  short  and  very  light.  The  procureur  du  roi 
and  Monsieur  Gravier  looked  at  each  other  in  a 
singular  manner  when  they  saw  the  two  Parisians 

in  the  calash,  and  they  themselves   standing   like 
(219) 


220  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

two  ninnies  at  the  foot  of  the  perron.  Monsieur  de 
la  Baudraye,  who,  from  the  height  of  the  last  step, 
made  to  the  doctor  a  slight  salute  with  his  little  hand, 
could  not  prevent  himself  from  smiling  when  he 
heard  Monsieur  de  Clagny  saying  to  Monsieur  Gra- 
vier : 

"  You  should  have  accompanied  them  on  horse- 
back." 

At  that  moment  Gatien,  mounted  upon  Monsieur 
de  la  Baudraye's  quiet  mare,  appeared  from  the 
alley  that  led  to  the  stables  and  rejoined  the  calash. 

"  Ah  !  good,"  said  the  receiver  of  taxes,  "  the  boy 
is  on  guard." 

"  What  a  nuisance  !  "  exclaimed  Dinah  when  she 
saw  Gatien.  "  In  thirteen  years,  for  it  is  now 
nearly  thirteen  years  that  I  have  been  married,  I 
have  not  had  three  hours  of  liberty — " 

"  Married,  madame  ?  "  said  the  journalist,  smiling. 
"  You  remind  me  of  a  saying  of  the  late  Michaud, 
who  uttered  so  many  fine  ones.  He  was  departing 
for  Palestine,  and  his  friends  were  representing  to 
him  the  dangers  of  such  a  journey  at  his  age.  '  And 
then,'  said  one  of  them  to  him,  '  you  are  married  ? ' 
1  Oh  ! '  he  replied,  '  I  am  so  little  married.'  " 

The  severe  Madame  Piedefer  could  not  repress  a 
smile. 

"  I  should  not  be  surprised  to  see  Monsieur  de  Cla- 
gny mounted  upon  my  pony,  come  to  complete  the 
escort,"  exclaimed  Dinah. 

"  Oh  !  if  the  procureur  du  roi  does  not  join  us," 
said  Lousteau,  "you  can  rid  yourself  of  this  little 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  221 

young  man  when  we  get  to  Sancerre.  Bianchon 
will  have  necessarily  forgotten  something  on  his 
table,  as  the  manuscript  of  his  first  lesson  for  his 
course,  and  you  will  entreat  Gatien  to  go  back  and 
look  for  it  at  Anzy." 

This  ruse,  though  simple,  put  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye  in  a  fine  humor.  The  route  from  Anzy  to 
Sancerre,  from  which  are  discovered  glimpses  of 
magnificent  landscapes,  from  which  frequently  the 
superb  sheet  of  the  Loire  produces  the  effect  of  a 
lake,  was  gayly  traversed,  for  Dinah  was  happy  to 
find  herself  so  well  comprehended.  They  discussed 
love  theoretically,  which  permits  friends  in  petto  to 
take  in  some  sort  the  measure  of  their  hearts.  The 
journalist  assumed  a  tone  of  elegant  corruption  in 
order  to  prove  that  love  obeyed  no  law,  that  the 
characters  of  the  lovers  varied  the  accidents  in- 
finitely, that  the  events  of  social  life  augmented  still 
more  the  variety  of  phenomena,  that  everything 
was  possible  and  true  in  this  sentiment ;  that  many 
a  woman,  after  having  for  a  long  time  resisted 
every  seduction  and  true  passions,  might  succumb 
in  a  few  hours  to  an  idea,  to  an  inward  storm  in 
the  secret  of  which  there  would  be  no  one  but  God  ! 

"  Eh  !  is  not  that  the  meaning  of  all  the  stories 
which  we  have  been  relating  to  each  other  for  the 
last  three  days  ?  "  he  said. 

For  the  last  three  days,  the  lively  imagination  of 
Dinah  had  been  occupied  with  the  most  insidious 
romances,  and  the  conversation  of  the  two  Parisians 
had  acted  upon  this  woman  like  the  most  dangerous 


222  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

books.  Lousteau  followed  with  his  eye  the  effects 
of  this  skilful  manoeuvre  to  seize  the  moment  in 
which  this  prey,  whose  willingness  concealed  itself 
under  the  thoughtful ness  which  springs  from  irres- 
olution, should  be  entirely  confused.  Dinah  wished 
to  show  La  Baudraye  to  the  two  Parisians,  and  they 
there  played  the  little  comedy  agreed  upon  of  the 
manuscript  forgotten  by  Bianchon  in  his  chamber  at 
Anzy.  Gatien  went  off  at  a  hard  gallop  at  the 
orders  of  his  sovereign,  Madame  Piedefer  went  to 
make  some  purchases  at  Sancerre,  and  Dinah,  alone 
with  the  two  friends,  took  the  road  to  Cosne.  Lous- 
teau placed  himself  near  the  chatelaine  and  Bian- 
chon took  the  front  seat.  The  conversation  of  the 
two  friends  was  kindJhearted  and  full  of  pity  for  the 
fate  of  this  superior  soul  so  little  comprehended  and, 
above  all,  in  such  evil  surroundings.  Bianchon 
aided  the  journalist  admirably  by  deriding  the  pro- 
cureur  du  roi,  the  receiver  of  taxes  and  Gatien  ; 
there  was  something  so  indefinably  scornful  in  his 
observations,  that  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  did  not 
dare  to  defend  her  adorers. 

"  I  can  explain  to  myself  perfectly,"  said  the 
physician  as  they  crossed  the  Loire,  "the  condition 
in  which  you  have  remained.  You  could  be  acces- 
sible only  to  love  through  the  head,  which  often  leads 
to  love  by  the  heart,  and  certainly  none  of  those 
men  there  are  capable  of  disguising  what  there  is 
objectionable  in  the  senses  in  early  life,  in  the  eyes 
of  a  delicate  woman.  To-day,  for  you,  to  love  be- 
comes a  necessity." 


THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  223 

"  A  necessity  !  "  exclaimed  Dinah,  looking  at  the 
physician  with  curiosity.  "  Should  I  then  love  by 
prescription  ?  " 

"  If  you  continue  to  live  as  you  are  living,  in  three 
years  you  will  be  frightful,"  replied  Bianchon  in  a 
magisterial  tone. 

"Monsieur! — "  said  Madame  de  la  Baudraye, 
almost  terrified. 

"You  must  excuse  my  friend,"  said  Lousteau 
pleasantly  to  the  baroness,  "he  is  always  a  physi- 
cian, and  love  is  for  him  only  a  question  of  hygiene. 
But  he  is  not  egotistical,  in  this  case  he  is  evidently 
concerned  with  your  interests  only,  since  he  de- 
parts in  an  hour — " 

At  Cosne  quite  a  crowd  gathered  around  the 
old  repainted  calash,  on  the  panels  of  which  might 
be  seen  the  arms  given  by  Louis  XIV.  to  the  neo- 
La  Baudraye  :  gules,  a  pair  of  scales  or,  chief,  aqure 
charged  with  three  small  cross  crosslets  argent ;  sup- 
porters, two  greyhounds  argent  collared  attire  and 
chained  or.  This  ironical  device  :  Deo  sic  patet  fides 
et  hominibus,  had  been  inflicted  upon  the  converted 
Calvinist  by  the  satirical  D'Hozier. 

"  Let  us  get  out,  they  will  come  to  notify  us,"  said 
the  baroness,  who  posted  her  coachman  on  the  lookout. 

Dinah  took  Bianchon's  arm,  and  the  physician 
went  off  to  take  a  promenade  on  the  banks  of  the 
Loire  with  so  rapid  a  step  that  the  journalist  was 
obliged  to  remain  behind.  A  single  wink  had  suf- 
ficed to  make  Lousteau  comprehend  that  the  doctor 
wished  to  serve  him. 


224  THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  Etienne  has  pleased  you,"  said  Bianchon  to 
Dinah,  "  he  has  appealed  keenly  to  your  imagina- 
tion, we  talked  about  you  yesterday  evening,  and 
he  loves  you —  But  he  is  a  light  man,  difficult  to 
fix  in  one  spot,  his  poverty  condemns  him  to  live  in 
Paris,  whilst  everything  orders  you  to  live  in  San- 
cerre —  Look  at  life  from  a  somewhat  lofty  point 
of  view —  make  of  Lousteau  your  friend,  do  not  be 
exacting,  he  will  come  three  times  a  year  to  pass 
some  fine  days  with  you,  and  you  will  owe  to  him 
beauty,  happiness  and  fortune.  Monsieur  de  la 
Baudraye  may  live  a  hundred  years,  but  he  may 
also  perish  in  nine  days,  through  not  having  put  on 
that  shroud  of  flannel  in  which  he  envelops  himself  ; 
do  not  then  compromise  anything.  Be  wise,  both 
of  you.  Do  not  say  a  word  to  me.  1  have  read  in 
your  heart." 

Madame  de  la  Baudraye  was  defenceless  before 
such  precise  affirmations  and  before  a  man  who  spoke 
at  once  as  a  doctor,  as  a  confessor,  and  as  a  con- 
fidant. 

"Eh!  what,"  she  said,  "can  you  imagine  that 
a  woman  could  enter  into  competition  with  the 
mistresses  of  a  journalist  ? —  Monsieur  Lousteau 
seems  to  me  to  be  agreeable,  very  clever,  but  he 
is  blase —  etc.,  etc." 

Dinah  returned  on  her  steps  and  was  obliged  to 
arrest  the  flow  of  her  words  under  which  she  de- 
sired to  conceal  her  intentions  ;  for  Etienne,  who 
appeared  to  be  much  interested  in  the  progress  of 
Cosne,  came  to  meet  them. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  225 

"Believe  me,"  said  Bianchon  to  her,  "he  needs 
to  be  loved  seriously  ;  and,  if  he  should  change  his 
mode  of  life,  his  talent  would  be  the  gainer  by  it." 

Dinah's  coachman  ran  up,  out  of  breath,  to  an- 
nounce the  arrival  of  the  diligence,  and  they  has- 
tened their  steps.  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  walked 
between  the  two  Parisians. 

"  Adieu,  my  children,"  said  Bianchon  before  they 
entered  Cosne,  "  I  bless  you." 

He  released  Madame  de  la  Baudraye's  arm,  which 
was  taken  by  Lousteau,  who  pressed  it  against  his 
heart  with  an  expression  of  tenderness  !  What  a 
difference  for  Dinah !  £tienne's  arm  caused  her 
the  most  lively  emotion,  while  from  that  of  Bian- 
chon she  had  experienced  nothing.  There  then 
passed  between  her  and  the  journalist  one  of  those 
reddening  glances  which  are  more  than  avowals. 

"  There  are  no  longer  any  but  the  women  of  the 
provinces  who  wear  organdie  dresses,  the  only  stuff 
the  rumpling  of  which  will  not  disappear,"  thought 
Lousteau.  "  This  woman,  who  has  chosen  me  for 
her  lover,  is  going  to  make  difficulties  because  of  her 
dress.  If  she  had  put  on  a  foulard  dress,  I  should 
be  happy —  What  is  the  object  of  these  resist- 
ances?— " 

Whilst  Lousteau  was  endeavoring  to  determine 
whether  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  had  had  the  inten- 
tion of  setting  up  for  herself  an  insurmountable 
barrier  by  selecting  an  organdie  dress,  Bianchon, 
aided  by  the  coachman,  had  caused  his  baggage  to 
be  placed  on  the  diligence.  Finally  he  came  to  bid 
8 


226  THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

farewell  to  Dinah,  who  seemed  to  be  very  affec- 
tionate to  him. 

"  Return,  Madame  la  Baronne,  do  not  wait  for 
me —  Gatien  is  coming,"  he  said  in  her  ear.  "  It 
is  late — "  he  went  on,  aloud.     "  Adieu  !  " 

"  Adieu,  great  man  !  "  exclaimed  Lousteau,  grasp- 
ing Bianchon's  hand. 

When  the  journalist  and  Madame  de  la  Baudraye, 
seated  beside  each  other  in  the  depths  of  this  old 
calash,  recrossed  the  Loire,  they  each  hesitated  to 
speak.  In  such  a  situation  as  this,  the  word  by 
which  the  silence  is  broken  possesses  a  terrifying 
compass. 

"Do  you  know  how  much  I  love  you?"  then 
said  the  journalist,  point-blank. 

Victory  might  be  flattering  for  Lousteau,  but  de- 
feat caused  him  no  grief.  This  indifference  was  the 
secret  of  his  audacity.  He  took  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye's  hand  in  saying  to  her  these  words,  so  very 
clear,  and  clasped  it  between  his  own  ;  but  Dinah 
gently  disengaged  her  hand. 

"Yes,  1  am  worth  as  much  as  a  grisette  or  an 
actress,"  said  she  in  a  voice  that  betrayed  emotion 
through  her  jesting;  "but  do  you  think  that  a 
woman  who,  notwithstanding  her  absurdities,  has 
some  intelligence,  should  have  reserved  the  finest 
treasures  of  her  heart  for  a  man  who  can  see  in  her 
only  a  passing  pleasure  ? —  I  am  not  surprised  to 
hear  from  your  mouth  a  word  which  so  many  in- 
dividuals have  already  spoken  to  me —  but — " 

The  coachman  turned  around. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  227 

"  Here  is  Monsieur  Gatien,"  he  said. 

"  I  love  you,  I  wish  you,  and  you  shall  be  mine, 
for  I  have  never  felt  for  any  woman  that  with  which 
you  inspire  me!"  exclaimed  Lousteau  in  Dinah's 
ear. 

"  In  spite  of  myself,  perhaps  ?  "  she  replied 
smiling. 

"  At  least  it  is  necessary  for  my  honor  that  you 
should  have  the  air  of  having  been  vigorously  at- 
tacked," said  the  Parisian,  to  whom  the  fatal  im- 
maculateness  of  the  organdie  suggested  a  facetious 
idea. 

Before  Gatien  had  reached  the  end  of  the  bridge, 
the  audacious  journalist  rumpled  up  the  organdie 
dress  so  quickly  that  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  saw 
herself  in  an  unpresentable  condition. 

"  Ah  !  Monsieur  ! — "  exclaimed  Dinah  majestic- 
ally. 

"  You  defied  me,"  replied  the  Parisian. 

But  Gatien  arrived  with  the  celerity  of  a  deceived 
lover.  In  order  to  regain  a  little  of  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye' s  esteem,  Lousteau  made  an  effort  to 
conceal  from  Gatien's  sight  the  disarranged  dress  by 
leaning  outside  the  vehicle  to  speak  to  him,  and  on 
Dinah's  side. 

"Hasten  to  our  inn,"  he  said  to  him,  "there  is 
yet  time,  the  diligence  does  not  start  for  half  an 
hour ;  the  manuscript  is  on  the  table  of  the  chamber 
occupied  by  Bianchon,  it  is  of  great  importance  to 
him,  for  he  would  not  know  how  to  go  on  with  his 
course." 


228  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"Go  now,  Gatien  !  "  said  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye,  looking  at  her  young  adorer  with  an  ex- 
pression full  of  despotism. 

The  youth,  commanded  by  this  insistence,  turned 
back,  riding  at  full  speed. 

"Drive  quickly  to  La  Baudraye  !  "  cried  Lous- 
teau  to  the  coachman  ;  "  Madame  la  Baronne  is  un- 
well. Your  mother  alone  shall  be  in  the  secret  of 
my  ruse,"  he  said,  seating  himself  again  at  Dinah's 
side. 

"  You  call  that  infamy  a  ruse  ?  "  said  Madame  de 
la  Baudraye,  repressing  some  tears  that  were  dried 
by  the  fire  of  an  irritated  pride. 

She  leaned  back  in  a  corner  of  the  calash,  crossed 
her  arms  on  her  breast  and  looked  at  the  Loire,  the 
landscape,  everything  but  Lousteau.  The  journalist 
then  took  on  a  caressing  tone  and  talked  all  the  way 
to  La  Baudraye,  where  Dinah  fled  from  the  calash 
into  her  house,  endeavoring  to  be  seen  by  no  one.  In 
her  trouble  she  threw  herself  upon  a  sofa  to  weep. 

"  If  I  am  for  you  an  object  of  horror,  of  hatred,  or 
of  scorn,  well,  I  will  go,"  said  Lousteau,  who  had 
followed  her. 

And  the  roue  placed  himself  at  Dinah's  feet.  It 
was  at  this  crisis  that  Madame  Piedefer  appeared, 
saying  to  her  daughter : 

"  Well,  what  is  the  matter  with  you  ?  what  has 
happened  ? " 

"  Give  your  daughter  another  dress,  quickly,"  said 
the  audacious  Parisian  in  the  ear  of  the  pious  old  lady. 

And,  hearing  the  furious  gallop  of  Gatien's  horse, 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  229 

Madame  de  la  Baudraye  threw  herself  into  her  cham- 
ber, where  her  mother  followed  her. 

"There  is  nothing  at  the  inn!"  said  Gatien  to 
Lousteau,  who  went  out  to  meet  him. 

"  And  you  found  nothing  either  at  the  Chateau 
d'Anzy  !  "  replied  Lousteau. 

"You  have  been  making  fun  of  me,"  returned 
Gatien  in  a  little  dry  tone. 

"  Exactly,"  said  Lousteau.  "  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  found  it  very  inconvenient  that  you  should 
follow  her  without  being  invited.  Believe  me,  it  is 
a  bad  way  of  seducing  women,  to  weary  them. 
Dinah  has  tricked  you,  you  have  made  her  laugh, 
that  is  a  success  that  not  one  of  you  has  had  with 
her  for  thirteen  years,  and  which  you  owe  to  Bian- 
chon,  for  your  cousin  is  the  author  of  the  farce  of  the 
manuscript! —  Will  the  horse  get  over  it?" 
observed  Lousteau  pleasantly,  while  Gatien  was 
asking  himself  whether  he  should  get  angry  or  not. 

"  The  horse  ! — "  repeated  Gatien. 

At  that  moment  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  came 
out,  wearing  a  velvet  dress  and  accompanied  by  her 
mother,  who  threw  irritated  glances  at  Lousteau. 
Before  Gatien,  it  was  imprudent  for  Dinah  to  appear 
cold  or  severe  with  Lousteau,  who,  profiting  by  this 
circumstance,  offered  his  arm  to  this  false  Lucretia  ; 
but  she  refused  it. 

"  Will  you  send  away  a  man  who  has  vowed  his 
life  to  you  ?  "  he  said  to  her,  walking  close  by  her 
side,  "  I  will  go  to  stay  in  Sancerre  and  depart  to- 
morrow." 


230  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  Are  you  coming,  mother  ?  "  said  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  to  Madame  Piedefer,  thus  avoiding  a  reply 
to  the  direct  argument  by  which  Lousteauhad  forced 
her  to  take  a  position. 

The  Parisian  assisted  the  mother  to  enter  the 
carriage,  he  assisted  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  by 
taking  her  gently  by  the  arm,  and  he  took  his  place 
on  the  front  seat  with  Gatien,  who  left  the  horse  at 
La  Baudraye. 

"You  have  changed  your  dress,"  said  Gatien 
maladroitly  to  Dinah. 

"Madame  la  Baronne  was  affected  by  the  fresh 
air  of  the  Loire,"  replied  Lousteau.  "  Bianchon 
advised  her  to  dress  warmly." 

Dinah  became  as<red  as  a  poppy,  and  Madame 
Piedefer  assumed  a  severe  expression. 

"  Poor  Bianchon,  he  is  on  the  road  to  Paris,  what 
a  noble  heart !  "  said  Lousteau. 

"Oh!  yes,"  replied  Madame  de  la  Baudraye, 
"he  is  both  great  and  delicate,  that  man — " 

"  We  were  so  gay  when  we  set  out,"  said  Lous- 
teau, "  now  you  are  not  feeling  well,  and  you  speak 
to  me  bitterly,  and  why  ? —  Are  you  not  then 
accustomed  to  hearing  it  said  that  you  are  beautiful 
and  intellectual  ?  I,  I  declare  before  Gatien,  I  re- 
nounce Paris,  I  am  going  to  stay  in  Sancerre  and 
increase  the  number  of  your  faithful  cavaliers.  I 
have  felt  so  young  in  my  natal  country,  I  have 
already  forgotten  Paris  and  its  corruptions,  and  its 
ennuis,  and  its  fatiguing  pleasures —  Yes,  my  life 
seems  to  me  as  if  purified — " 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  231 

Dinah  allowed  Lousteau  to  talk  without  looking  at 
him  ;  but  there  was  a  moment  when  the  improvisation 
of  this  serpent  became  so  spiritual  under  the  effort 
which  he  made  to  imitate  passion  by  phrases  and 
by  ideas  of  which  the  sense,  hidden  from  Gatien, 
flowered  out  in  Dinah's  heart,  that  she  lifted  her 
eyes  to  him.  This  look  seemed  to  complete  the  joy 
of  Lousteau,  who  redoubled  his  sallies,  and  finally 
made  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  laugh.  When,  in  a 
situation  in  which  her  pride  is  so  cruelly  wounded,  a 
woman  has  laughed,  everything  is  compromised. 
When  they  entered  the  immense  court  of  her  bowling 
green,  sanded  and  ornamented  with  baskets  of  flow- 
ers which  gave  such  value  to  the  facade  of  Anzy, 
the  journalist  was  saying  : 

"  When  the  women  love  us,  they  pardon  us  every- 
thing, even  our  crimes  ;  when  they  do  not  love  us, 
they  pardon  us  nothing,  not  even  our  virtues  !  Will 
you  pardon  me  ? "  he  added  in  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye's  ear,  pressing  her  arm  against  his  heart 
with  a  gesture  full  of  tenderness. 

Dinah  could  not  prevent  herself  from  smiling. 

During  the  dinner,  and  during  the  rest  of  the 
evening,  Lousteau  was  charming  in  his  gayety,  his 
enthusiasm  ;  but,  while  thus  depicting  his  intoxica- 
tion, he  yielded  himself  up  at  moments  to  reverie,  as 
a  man  who  appeared  to  be  absorbed  in  his  happiness. 
After  the  coffee,  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  and  her 
mother  permitted  the  men  to  walk  about  in  the  gar- 
dens. Monsieur  Gravier  then  said  to  the  procureur 
du  roi : 


232  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  Have  you  remarked  that  Madame  de  la  Baudraye, 
who  went  away  in  an  organdie  dress,  came  back  in  a 
velvet  dress  ?  " 

"  In  getting  into  the  carriage  at  Cosne,  the  dress 
caught  on  the  brass  button  of  the  calash  and  was 
torn  from  top  to  bottom,"  replied  Lousteau. 

"  Oh  !  "  said  Gatien,  pierced  to  the  heart  by  the 
cruel  difference  between  the  journalist's  two  expla- 
nations. 

Lousteau,  who  counted  upon  this  surprise  of 
Gatien,  took  him  by  the  arm  and  grasped  it  to  ask 
him  to  keep  silence.  A  few  minutes  later,  Lousteau 
left  the  three  adorers  of  Dinah  alone,  and  took  pos- 
session of  the  little  La  Baudraye.  Gatien  was  then 
interrogated  upon  the  events  of  the  journey.  Mon- 
sieur Gravier  and  Monsieur  de  Clagny  were  stupe- 
fied to  find  that  Dinah  had  been  found  alone  with 
Lousteau  on  the  return  from  Cosne,  but  more  stupe- 
fied still  at  the  Parisian's  two  versions  of  the  chang- 
ing of  the  dress.  Therefore  the  attitude  of  these 
three  discomfited  men  was  very  much  embarrassed 
during  the  evening.  The  next  morning,  each  of 
them  had  business  which  obliged  him  to  leave 
Anzy,  where  Dinah  remained  alone  with  her  mother, 
her  husband  and  Lousteau.  The  vexation  of  the 
three  Sancerrois  organized  in  the  town  a  great 
clamor.  The  fall  of  the  Muse  of  Berri,  of  Niver- 
nais  and  of  Morvan,  was  accompanied  by  a  real 
charivari  of  slanders,  of  calumnies  and  of  divers  con- 
jectures among  which  figured  in  the  first  line  the 
history   of  the  organdie  dress.     Never  had   one   of 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  233 

Dinah's  toilets  had  so  much  success,  and  awakened 
more  the  attention  of  the  young  persons  of  her  own 
sex,  who  could  not  in  the  least  explain  the  connec- 
tion between  love  and  the  organdie  at  which  the  mar- 
ried women  laughed  so  much.  The  wife  of  the 
president  Boirouge,  furious  at  her  son  Gatien's  mis- 
adventure, forgot  all  the  eulogies  she  had  lavished 
on  the  poem  of  Paqnita  la  Sevillane  ;  she  fulminated 
horrible  censures  against  a  woman  capable  of  publish- 
ing such  an  infamy. 

"  The  unhappy  woman  commits  everything  that 
she  has  written!"  said  she.  ''Perhaps  she  will 
end  as  did  her  heroine  ! — " 

It  was  with  Dinah  among  the  Sancerrois  as  it  was 
with  Marshal  Soult  in  the  opposition  journals, — so 
long  as  he  was  minister,  he  had  lost  the  battle  of 
Toulouse  ;  as  soon  as  he  had  entered  into  retirement, 
he  had  gained  it !  Virtuous,  Dinah  was  accepted  as 
the  rival  of  the  Camille  Maupins,  of  the  women  the 
most  illustrious  ;  but,  happy,  she  was  an  unhappy 
woman  ! 

Monsieur  de  Clagny  defended  Dinah  courageously, 
he  returned  on  several  occasions  to  the  Chateau 
d'Anzy  in  order  to  have  the  right  to  deny  the 
reports  that  were  afloat  concerning  her  whom  he 
still  adored,  even  though  fallen,  and  he  maintained 
that  it  was  only  a  matter  of  a  collaboration  between 
her  and  Lousteau  in  a  great  literary  work.  The 
procureur  du  roi  was  derided. 

The  month  of  October  was  ravishing,  autumn  is 
the   most  beautiful   season   in  the   valleys   of  the 


234  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

Loire  ;  but  in  1836,  it  was  peculiarly  magnificent. 
Nature  seemed  to  be  the  accomplice  of  Dinah's  hap- 
piness,— as  Bianchon  had  predicted,  she  arrived  by- 
degrees  at  a  violent  love  of  the  heart.  In  the 
course  of  a  month  the  chatelaine  changed  complete- 
ly. She  was  astonished  to  find  so  many  inert  facul- 
ties, sleeping,  useless,  up  to  this  time.  Lousteau 
was  an  angel  for  her,  for  the  heart's  love,  that  real 
need  of  great  souls,  made  of  her  an  entirely  new 
woman.  Dinah  lived !  she  found  the  employment 
of  her  forces,  she  discovered  unexpected  perspec- 
tives in  her  future,  she  was  happy  at  last,  happy 
without  cares,  without  obstacles.  This  immense 
chateau,  the  gardens,  the  park,  the  forest,  were 
so  favorable  to  love  !  Lousteau  found  in  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye  an  ingenuousness  of  impression,  an 
innocence  if  you  like,  which  rendered  her  original, 
— there  was  in  her  something  piquant,  unforeseen, 
much  more  than  in  a  young  girl.  He  was  conscious 
of  a  flattery  which  with  nearly  all  women  is  a  comedy, 
but  which  with  Dinah  was  real ;  she  learned  love 
from  him,  he  was  indeed  the  first  in  this  heart. 
Finally,  he  gave  himself  the  trouble  to  be  exces- 
sively kind.  Men  have, — as  have  women,  more- 
over,— a  repertory  of  recitatives,  of  cantilenas,  of 
nocturnes,  of  motifs,  of  returns — must  we  say,  re- 
ceipts, although  this  is  concerning  love  ? — which 
they  think  their  exclusive  property.  Those  who 
have  arrived  at  Lousteau's  age  endeavor  to  dis- 
tribute skilfully  the  various  portions  of  this  treas- 
ure throughout  the  opera  of  a  passion  ;  but,  seeing 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  235 

only  a  piece  of  good  fortune  in  his  adventure  with 
Dinah,  the  Parisian  wished  to  engrave  his  souvenir 
in  ineffaceable  lines  on  this  heart,  and  he  lavished 
during  this  beautiful  month  of  October  all  his  most 
coquettish  melodies  and  his  most  knowing  barca- 
rolles. In  short,  he  exhausted  all  the  resources  of 
the  mise  en  scene  of  love, — to  make  use  of  one  of 
those  expressions  diverted  from  the  slang  of  the 
theatres  and  which  expresses  this  performance  ad- 
mirably. 

"  If  this  woman  forget  me  !  " — he  said  to  himself 
sometimes  when  returning  with  her  to  the  chateau 
from  a  long  promenade  in  the  woods,  "  I  would 
not  resent  it,  she  would  have  found  something 
better !— " 

When,  between  each  other,  two  beings  have  ex- 
changed the  duos  of  this  delicious  score  and  they 
still  please  each  other,  it  can  be  said  that  they 
love  each  other  truly.  But  Lousteau  would  not 
have  the  time  to  repeat  himself,  for  he  expected 
to  leave  Anzy  in  the  first  days  of  November,  his 
feuilleton  recalled  him  to  Paris.  Before  dejeuner, 
on  the  day  preceding  the  projected  departure,  the 
journalist  and  Dinah  saw  the  little  La  Baudraye 
arrive  with  an  artist  from  Nevers,  a  restorer  of 
sculptures. 

"  What  is  it  about  ?  "  asked  Lousteau,  "  what  do 
you  wish  to  do  to  your  chateau  ?  " 

"  This  is  what  I  wish,"  replied  the  little  old  man, 
conducting  the  journalist,  his  wife  and  the  provincial 
artist  out  on  the  terrace. 


236  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

He  showed  upon  the  facade,  over  the  entrance 
door,  a  quaint  cartouche  supported  by  two  sirens, 
bearing  a  sufficient  resemblance  to  that  which  deco- 
rates the  arcade,  now  condemned,  by  which  you 
formerly  went  from  the  quai  of  the  Tuileries  into 
the  court  of  the  old  Louvre,  and  over  which  may  be 
read,  Bibliotheque  du  cabinet  du  roi.  This  car- 
touche carried  the  old  coat  of  arms  of  the  Uxelles, 
which  bore  or  and  gules,  in  fess,  one  and  the  other, 
with  two  lions,  gules  dexter  and  or  sinister,  for  sup- 
porters;  the  shield  with  a  crest  of  a  knight's  helmet, 
mantled  with  the  colors  of  the  shield  and  surmounted 
by  the  ducal  coronet.  Then  for  device  :  Cy  paroist!  a 
proud  and  resounding  motto. 

"  I  wish  to  replace  the  arms  of  the  house  of 
Uxelles  by  my  own  ;  and  as  they  are  repeated  six 
times  in  the  two  facades  and  in  the  two  wings,  that 
is  not  a  small  affair." 

"Your  arms  of  yesterday!"  exclaimed  Dinah, 
"and  after  1830!—" 

"  Have  I  not  constituted  a  majorat  ?  " 

"  I  could  understand  that  if  you  had  children," 
said  the  journalist  to  him. 

"  Oh  !  "  replied  the  little  old  man,  "  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  is  still  young,  there  is  no  time  lost  as 
yet." 

This  fatuity  made  Lousteau  smile,  for  he  did  not 
understand  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye. 

"Well,  Didme,"  said  he  in  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye's  ear,  "  of  what  use  is  your  remorse  ?  " 

Dinah   entreated  for   another  day,  and  the   two 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  237 

lovers  exchanged  their  farewells  after  the  manner 
of  those  theatres  which  give  ten  times  in  succession 
the  last  representation  of  a  well-paying  piece.  But 
how  many  promises  were  exchanged  !  how  many 
solemn  compacts  were  exacted  by  Dinah  and  granted 
without  any  difficulties  by  the  impudent  journalist ! 
With  the  superiority  of  a  superior  woman  Dinah 
conducted,  in  the  sight  and  with  the  knowledge  of 
the  whole  country,  Lousteau  as  far  as  Cosne,  in  the 
company  of  her  mother  and  the  little  La  Baudraye. 
When,  ten  days  later,  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  re- 
ceived in  her  salon  at  La  Baudraye,  Messieurs  de 
Clagny,  Gatien  and  Gravier,  she  found  an  oppor- 
tunity to  say  audaciously  to  each  of  them  : 

"  I  owe  to  Monsieur  Lousteau  the  knowledge  that 
I  was  not  loved  for  myself  alone." 

And  what  fine  little  sarcasms  she  retailed  concern- 
ing men,  and  the  nature  of  their  sentiments,  and  the 
aim  of  their  vile  love,  etc.  !  Of  Dinah's  three  lovers, 
Monsieur  de  Clagny  alone  said  to  her :  "  I  love  you 
whatever  happens  ! — "  Thus  Dinah  took  him  for  a 
confidant  and  disbursed  for  him  all  the  sweetnesses  of 
friendship  which  women  confect  for  the  Gurths  who 
wear  thus  the  collar  of  an  adored  slavery. 

On  his  return  to  Paris,  Lousteau  lost  in  the  course 
of  a  few  weeks  the  remembrance  of  the  beautiful 
days  passed  at  the  Chateau  d'Anzy.  For  this  rea- 
son. Lousteau  lived  by  his  pen.  In  this  century, 
and  especially  since  the  triumph  of  a  bourgeoisie 
which  takes  very  good  care  not  to  imitate  Francis 
I.  or  Louis  XIV.,  to  live  by  one's  pen  is   a  labor 


238  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

which  would  be  refused  by  convicts,  they  would 
prefer  death.  To  live  by  one's  pen,  is  not  that  to 
create  ?  to  create  to-day,  to-morrow,  forever — or  to 
have  the  appearance  of  creating  ;  now,  the  semblance 
costs  as  much  as  the  reality  !  Outside  of  his  feuille- 
ton  in  a  daily  journal,  which  resembled  the  rock  of 
Sisyphus  and  which  rolled  back  every  Monday  on 
the  handle  of  his  pen,  Etienne  worked  for  three  or 
four  literary  journals.  But,  reassure  yourselves ! 
he  did  not  put  any  artistic  conscientiousness  in  his 
productions.  The  Sancerrois  belonged,  by  his  facil- 
ity, by  his  carelessness  if  you  like,  to  that  group  of 
writers  known  by  the  name  of  faiseurs  or  hommes  de 
metier.  In  literature,  in  Paris,  in  our  days,  le  metier 
is  a  resignation  given  of  all  pretensions  to  any  place 
whatever.  When  he  no  longer  can,  or  when  he  no 
longer  wishes  to  be  anything,  a  writer  makes  him- 
self a  faiseur.  He  then  leads  a  life  sufficiently 
agreeable.  The  debutants,  the  blue-stockings,  the 
actresses  who  are  commencing  and  those  who  are 
finishing  their  careers,  authors  and  publishing 
houses  caress  or  pamper  these  pens-of-all-work. 
Lousteau,  become  a  "man  about  town,"  had  no 
longer  much  more  than  his  rent  to  pay  in  the  matter 
of  expenses.  He  had  boxes  at  all  the  theatres.  The 
sale  of  the  books  of  which  he  rendered  or  did  not  ren- 
der any  account  paid  for  his  gloves  ;  thus  he  would 
say  to  those  authors  who  printed  at  their  own 
expense  : 

"  I  always  have  your  book  in  hand." 

He  collected  on  the  small  vanities  his  taxes  in 


THE   MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  239 

designs,  in  pictures.  All  his  days  were  occupied  by 
dinners,  his  evenings  by  the  theatre,  the  morning  by 
friends,  by  visits,  by  idling.  His  feuilleton,  his  ar- 
ticles and  the  two  novels  which  he  wrote  each  year 
for  the  weekly  journals  were  the  duty  levied  upon 
this  happy  life.  Etienne  had,  however,  struggled  for 
years  to  arrive  at  this  position.  Finally,  known  in 
all  literature,  loved  as  much  for  the  good  as  for  the 
evil  which  he  committed  with  an  irreproachable  good 
nature,  he  allowed  himself  to  drift,  careless  of  the 
future.  He  reigned  in  the  midst  of  a  coterie  of  new- 
comers, he  had  friendships,  that  is  to  say  habits, 
which  had  lasted  for  fifteen  years,  people  with  whom 
he  supped,  he  dined  and  permitted  himself  his  jests. 
He  earned  about  seven  or  eight  hundred  francs  a 
month,  a  sum  which  the  prodigality  peculiar  to  the 
poor  rendered  insufficient.  Thus  he  found  himself 
quite  as  unhappy  as  when,  at  his  debut  in  Paris,  he 
had  said  to  himself : 

"  If  I  had  five  hundred  francs  a  month,  I  should  be 
very  rich  !  " 

This  is  the  reason  of  this  phenomenon.  Lousteau 
lived  in  the  Rue  des  Martyrs,  in  a  pretty,  magnifi- 
cently furnished  little  ground  floor,  with  a  garden. 
At  the  time  of  his  installation,  in  1833,  he  had  made 
with  a  furnisher  an  arrangement  which  gnawed  at 
his  peace  and  comfort  for  a  long  time.  This  apart- 
ment cost  twelve  hundred  francs'  rent.  Now, 
the  months  of  January,  of  April,  of  July  and  of 
October  were,  as  he  said,  poverty-stricken  months. 
The  rent  and  the  porter's  bills  swept  off  everything. 


240  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

Lousteau  did  not  take  any  fewer  cabriolets,  did  not 
spend  a  hundred  francs  less  in  dejeuners  ;  he  smoked 
thirty  francs'  worth  of  cigars, and  was  unable  to  refuse 
either  a  dinner  or  a  dress  to  his  chance  mistresses. 
He  then  so  anticipated  his  income  on  the  returns,  al- 
ways uncertain,  of  the  following  months,  that  he  was 
no  more  able  to  see  a  hundred  francs  on  his  chimney- 
piece,  earning  seven  or  eight  hundred  francs  a 
month,  than  when  he  had  gained  scarcely  two  hun- 
dred in  1822.  Wearied  sometimes  with  these  rota- 
tions of  literary  life,  as  bored  with  pleasure  as  is  a 
courtesan,  he  withdrew  from  the  stream  sometimes, 
seated  himself  on  the  slope  of  the  shore  and  said  to 
some  of  his  intimate  friends,  to  Nathan,  to  Bixiou, 
smoking  a  cigar  at  the  back  of  his  garden,  before  a 
lawn  always  green  and  as  large  as  a  dining-table  : 

"  How  are  we  going  to  end  ?  The  gray  hairs  are 
presenting  us  with  their  respectful  summons  ! — " 

"  Bah  !  we  shall  get  married,  when  we  wish,  we 
will  concern  ourselves  with  our  marriage  as  much  as 
we  concern  ourselves  with  a  drama  or  a  book,"  said 
Nathan. 

"  And  Florine  ?  "  asked  Bixiou. 

"  We  all  have  a  Florine,"  said  Etienne,  throwing 
away  the  end  of  his  cigar  on  the  grass  and  thinking 
of  Madame  Schontz. 

Madame  Schontz  was  a  woman  sufficiently  pretty 
to  be  able  to  sell  very  dearly  the  usufruct  of  her 
beauty,  while  still  preserving  the  bare  property  to 
Lousteau,  the  friend  of  her  heart.  Like  all  those 
women  who,  from  the  name  of  the  church  around 


THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  241 

which  they  had  grouped  themselves  have  been 
named  lorettes,  she  lived  in  the  Rue  Flechier,  two 
steps  from  Lousteau.  This  lorette  found  a  satisfac- 
tion to  her  vanity  in  scoffing  at  her  friends  by  telling 
them  of  her  being  loved  by  a  man  of  wit  and  learn- 
ing. These  details  concerning  the  life  and  the 
finances  of  Lousteau  are  necessary  ;  for  this  penury 
and  this  bohemian  existence,  to  which  the  Parisian 
luxury  was  indispensable,  were  to  have  a  cruel  in- 
fluence upon  the  future  of  Dinah. 

Those  to  whom  the  Bohemia  of  Paris  is  known 
can  then  comprehend  how,  at  the  end  of  two  weeks, 
the  journalist,  plunged  again  into  the  midst  of  his 
literary  world,  was  able  to  laugh  at  his  baroness, 
among  his  friends,  and  even  with  Madame  Schontz. 
As  to  those  who  find  these  doings  infamous,  it  is 
almost  useless  to  present  to  them  inadmissible  ex- 
cuses. 

"  What  did  you  do  at  Sancerre  ?  "  asked  Bixiou 
of  Lousteau  when  they  met. 

"  I  have  done  a  service  to  three  honest  provin- 
cials, a  receiver  of  taxes,  a  little  cousin  and  a  pro- 
cureur  du  roi,  who  had  been  turning  for  ten  years," 
he  replied,  "around  one  of  those  hundred-and-one 
tenth  Muses  who  ornament  the  departments,  with- 
out touching  her  any  more  than  you  touch  one  of 
those  set  pieces  set  up  for  dessert,  until  some  bold 
soul  takes  a  knife  to  open  it — " 

"  Poor  boy  !  "  said  Bixiou,  "  I  said  very  plainly 
that  you  were  going  to  Sancerre  to  put  your  soul  out 
to  grass — au  vert, — ouvert,  open. 
16 


242  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

"  Your  pun  is  as  detestable  as  my  Muse  is  beau- 
tiful, my  dear  fellow,"  replied  Lousteau.  <f  Ask 
Bianchon." 

"A  muse  and  a  poet,"  replied  Bixiou,  "your 
adventure  was  then  a  homoeopathic  treatment." 

On  the  tenth  day,  Lousteau  received  a  letter  with 
the  Sancerre  postmark. 

"  Good  !  good  !  "  said  he.  "  '  Cherished  friend, 
idol  of  my  heart  and  of  my  soul — '  Twenty  pages 
of  writing  !  one  a  day  and  dated  at  midnight !  She 
writes  to  me  when  she  is  alone —  Poor  woman  ! 
Ah !  ah  !  Post-scriptum.  '  I  dare  not  ask  of  you 
to  write  as  I  do,  every  day  ;  but  I  hope  to  have 
from  my  well-beloved  two  lines  every  week  to 
ease  my  mind — '  *  What  a  pity  to  burn  that !  it  is 
superlatively  written,"  said  Lousteau  to  himself, 
throwing  the  ten  sheets  into  the  fire  after 
having  read  them.  "  This  woman  is  born  to  make 
copy." 

Lousteau  had  little  fear  of  Madame  Schontz,  by 
whom  he  was  loved  for  himself;  but  he  had  sup- 
planted one  of  his  friends  in  the  heart  of  a  marchion- 
ess. The  marchioness,  a  woman  sufficiently  free 
with  her  person,  came  sometimes  unexpectedly  to  his 
house  in  the  evening,  in  a  fiacre,  veiled,  and  per- 
mitted herself  in  her  quality  of  a  woman  of  letters, 
to  search  in  all  the  drawers.  A  week  later,  Lous- 
teau, who  scarcely  thought  of  Dinah,  was  over- 
turned by  another  package  from  Sancerre, — eight 
leaves  !  sixteen  pages  !  He  heard  a  woman's  step, 
he  feared  some  domiciliary  visit  from  the  marchion- 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  243 

ess  and  threw  all  these  ravishing  and  delicious 
proofs  of  love  in  the  fire — without  reading  them  ! 

"  A  woman's  letter  !  "  exclaimed  Madame  Schontz, 
entering,  "the  paper,  the  wax,  smell  too  pleas- 
antly—" 

"  Monsieur,  see,"  said  a  porter  of  the  messageries, 
depositing  in  the  antechamber  two  enormous  game 
baskets.  "  All  prepaid.  Will  you  sign  my  receipt- 
book  ?  " 

"All  prepaid!"  said  Madame  Schontz.  "That 
can  only  come  from  Sancerre." 

"  Yes,  madame,"  said  the  porter. 

"  Your  tenth  Muse  is  a  woman  of  a  high  order  of 
intelligence,"  said  the  lorette,  opening  one  of  the 
baskets  whilst  Lousteau  signed;  "I  love  a  Muse 
who  knows  housekeeping  and  who  makes  at  the 
same  time  pates  of  ink — blots — and  pates  of  game. — 
Oh!  the  beautiful  flowers!"  she  exclaimed,  un- 
covering the  second  basket.  "  Why,  there  is  noth- 
ing more  beautiful  in  Paris  ! —  And  what !  and 
what !  a  hare,  partridges,  half  a  roebuck  !  We  will 
invite  your  friends  and  we  will  make  a  famous  din- 
ner, for  Athalie  possesses  a  particular  talent  for 
cooking  roebuck." 

Lousteau  replied  to  Dinah  ;  but,  instead  of  reply- 
ing with  his  heart,  he  did  it  with  his  mind.  The 
letter  was  all  the  more  dangerous,  it  resembled  a 
letter  from  Mirabeau  to  Sophie.  The  style  of  true 
lovers  is  limpid.  It  is  a  clear  water  which  allows  to 
be  seen  the  bottom  of  the  heart  between  two  shores 
ornamented  with  the  little  nothings  of  life,  enamelled 


244  THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

with  those  flowers  of  the  soul  which  are  born  each 
day  and  of  which  the  charm  is  intoxicating,  but  for 
two  beings  only.  Therefore,  as  soon  as  a  love 
letter  can  give  pleasure  to  the  third  person  who 
reads  it,  it  has  certainly  issued  from  the  head  and 
not  from  the  heart.  But  the  women  are  always 
taken  by  it, — they  think  themselves  the  unique 
source  of  this  wit. 


Toward  the  end  of  the  month  of  December,  Lous- 
teau  no  longer  read  Dinah's  letters,  which  accumu- 
lated in  a  drawer  of  his  bureau,  always  open,  under 
his  shirts,  which  they  perfumed.  There  was  pre- 
sented to  him  one  of  those  chances  which  the 
bohemians  should  seize  by  every  hair.  In  the 
middle  of  this  month,  Madame  Schontz,  who  was 
much  interested  in  Lousteau,  asked  him  to  call  at 
her  house  one  morning  on  business. 

"  My  dear,  you  can  get  married,"  she  said  to 
him. 

"  Frequently,  my  dear,  fortunately  !  " 

"When  I  say  get  married,  that  means  to  make 
a  fine  marriage.  You  have  no  prejudices,  there  is 
no  need  to  cover  things  up, — this  is  the  case.  A 
young  person  has  committed  a  fault,  and  her  mother 
does  not  know  of  the  first  kiss.  The  father  is  an 
honest  notary  full  of  honor,  he  has  had  the  wisdom 
to  make  no  noise  about  it.  He  wishes  to  marry 
his  daughter  within  two  weeks,  he  will  give  a  dot 
of  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs,  for  he  has 
three  other  children  ;  but — not  so  bad  ! — he  adds  a 
supplement  of  a  hundred  thousand  francs  from 
(245) 


246  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

hand  to  hand  to  cover  the  damage.  It  is  an  old 
family  of  the  Parisian  bourgeoisie  in  the  Quartier 
des  Lombards. — " 

"  Well,  why  does  not  the  lover  marry  her  ?  " 

"Dead." 

"  What  a  romance  !  it  is  only  in  the  Rue  des  Lom- 
bards that  things  now  happen  in  that  way — " 

"  But  you  are  not  going  to  believe  that  a  jealous 
brother  has  killed  the  seducer  ?  This  young  man 
has  died  very  stupidly  of  a  pleurisy,  caught  in 
coming  out  from  a  theatre.  Head  clerk,  and  with- 
out a  farthing,  my  man  seduced  the  girl  just  to 
secure  the  practice.  And  there  is  a  vengeance  from 
Heaven  !  " 

"  From  whom  did  you  learn  this?  " 

"  From  Malaga,  the  notary  is  her  great  man." 

"  What !  is  it  Cardot,  the  son  of  that  little  old  man 
with  a  queue  and  powdered,  the  first  friend  of  Flo- 
rentine ?  " 

"  Precisely.  Malaga,  whose  lover  is  a  little 
cricket  of  a  musician  eighteen  years  old,  cannot  in 
conscience  marry  him  at  that  age  ;  she  has,  moreover, 
no  reason  to  wish  to  do  so.  Besides,  Monsieur 
Cardot  wishes  a  man  of  at  least  thirty.  This 
notary,  it  seems  to  me,  would  be  very  much  flattered 
to  have  for  son-in-law  a  celebrity.  Therefore,  con- 
sider yourself,  my  good  man !  You  pay  your 
debts,  you  become  rich  with  twelve  thousand  francs 
of  income,  and  you  have  not  the  vexation  of  making 
yourself  a  father, — there  they  are,  the  advantages  ! 
After   all,   you  marry  a  consolable  widow.     There 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  247 

are  fifty  thousand  francs  of  income  in  the  house, 
over  and  above  the  office ;  you  cannot  then 
have  some  day  less  than  fifteen  thousand  other 
francs  of  income,  and  you  will  be  a  member  of  a 
family  which,  politically,  occupies  a  fine  position. 
Cardot  is  the  brother-in-law  of  the  old  Camusot, 
the  deputy,  who  was  so  long  with  Fanny  Beaupre." 

"Yes,"  said  Lousteau,  "Camusot  the  father, 
married  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  late  little  Pere 
Cardot,  and  they  carried  out  their  humbugs  to- 
gether." 

"Well,"  resumed  Madame  Schontz,  "Madame 
Cardot,  the  notary's  wife,  is  a  Chiffreville,  manu- 
facturers of  chemical  products,  the  aristocracy  of  to- 
day, what !  the  Potashes  !  There  is  the  bad  side 
of  it, — you  will  have  a  terrible  mother-in-law. — Oh  ! 
a  woman  to  kill  her  daughter  if  she  knew  in  what 
condition  she —  This  Cardot  is  pious,  she  has  lips 
like  two  penny  ribbons  of  faded  pink. — A  high  liver 
like  you  will  never  be  accepted  by  that  woman, 
who,  with  good  intention,  will  investigate  your 
bachelor  life  and  will  know  all  your  past ;  but  Cardot 
will,  he  says,  make  use  of  his  paternal  authority. 
The  poor  man  will  be  obliged  to  be  gracious  for  a 
few  days  to  his  wife,  a  woman  of  wood,  my  dear ; 
Malaga,  who  has  met  her,  called  her  a  hard  bristle 
brush.  Cardot  is  forty  years  old,  he  will  be  mayor 
of  his  arrondissement,  he  will  perhaps  become 
deputy.  He  offers,  instead  of  the  hundred  thousand 
francs,  to  give  a  pretty  house  in  the  Rue  Saint- 
Lazare,  between  a  court  and  a  garden,  which  cost 


248  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

him  only  sixty  thousand  francs  at  the  break-up  of 
July  ;  he  will  sell  it  to  you,  a  story  which  will  give 
you  an  occasion  to  go  and  come  in  his  house,  to  see 
the  daughter,  to  please  the  mother. — That  will 
constitute  you  an  owner  in  Madame  Cardot's  eyes. 
In  short,  you  will  be  like  a  prince  in  that  little 
hotel.  You  will  get  yourself  appointed,  through 
Cardot's  influence,  librarian  to  some  ministry 
where  there  will  be  no  books.  Well,  if  you  place 
your  money  as  security  in  the  journal,  you  will 
have  ten  thousand  francs  of  income,  you  earn  six, 
your  library  will  give  you  four. — Find  anything 
better !  If  you  should  marry  a  lamb  without  a 
spot,  it  might  change  into  a  light  woman  at  the 
end  of  two  years. — What  is  it  that  is  offered  you  ? 
a  dividend  before  it  is  due.  That  is  the  fashion  ! 
If  you  will  believe  me,  you  had  better  come  and 
dine  to-morrow  with  Malaga.  You  will  there  see 
your  father-in-law,  he  will  learn  of  the  indiscre- 
tion, which  will  be  thought  to  have  been  committed 
by  Malaga,  with  whom  he  cannot  get  vexed,  and 
you  will  then  have  the  advantage  of  him.  As  to 
your  wife — Eh  ! — why,  her  fault  leaves  you  still 
free  to  live  like  a  bachelor — " 

"  Truly,  your  language  is  no  more  hypocritical 
than  a  cannon-ball." 

"  1  love  you  for  yourself,  that  is  all,  and  I  reason 
it  out.  Well,  what  are  you  doing,  sitting  there  like 
an  Abd-el-Kadir  in  wax  ?  There  is  no  need  for  re- 
flection. It  is  head  or  tail,  marriage.  Well,  you 
have  drawn  tail  ?  " 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  249 

"  You  will  have  my  reply  to-morrow,"  said  Lous- 
teau. 

"  I  would  rather  have  it  immediately,  Malaga  will 
describe  the  goods  to  you  this  evening." 

"Well,  yes—" 

Lousteau  passed  the  evening  in  writing  to  the 
marchioness  a  long  letter  in  which  he  gave  her  the 
reasons  which  obliged  him  to  marry, — his  constant 
poverty,  the  indolence  of  his  imaginative  faculties, 
his  white  hairs,  his  physical  and  moral  fatigue,  in 
short,  four  pages  of  reasons. 

"  As  for  Dinah,  I  will  just  send  her  an  announce- 
ment of  the  event,"  he  said  to  himself.  "  As  Bixiou 
says,  I  have  not  my  equal  for  knowing  how  to  cut  a 
passion  off  short. — " 

Lousteau,  who  had  at  first  made  difficulties  with 
himself,  had  arrived  by  the  next  day  at  the  point  of 
fearing  that  this  marriage  might  not  be  accomplished. 
Thus  it  happened  that  he  was  charming  with  the 
notary. 

"  I  met  monsieur  your  father  at  Florentine's,"  he 
said  to  him,  "  1  should  have  met  you  at  the  house 
of  Mademoiselle  Turquet.  Like  father,  like  son.  He 
was  very  nice  and  philosophical,  the  little  Pere 
Cardot,  for — if  you  will  permit  me — we  thus  desig- 
nated him.  In  those  days,  Florine,  Florentine, 
Tullia,  Coralie  and  Mariette  were  like  the  five 
fingers  of  your  hand. — That  was  fifteen  years  ago. 
You  understand  that  my  follies  are  no  longer  to  be 
committed. — In  those  days  the  love  of  pleasure  car- 
ried me  away  ;  to-day,  I  have  ambition  ;  but  we  are 


250  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

living  in  a  period  when,  in  order  to  succeed,  it  is 
necessary  to  have  no  debts,  to  have  a  fortune,  a  wife 
and  children.  If  I  pay  the  electoral  tax,  if  I  am  the 
proprietor  of  my  journal  instead  of  being  an  editor,  I 
should  become  a  deputy  just  like  so  many  others  !  " 

Mattre  Cardot  appreciated  this  profession  of  faith. 
Lousteau  had  put  himself  under  arms,  he  pleased 
the  notary,  who,  as  may  be  readily  conceived,  was 
more  unrestrained  with  a  man  who  had  been  ac- 
quainted with  the  secrets  of  his  father's  life  than  he 
would  have  been  with  any  other.  On  the  next  day, 
Lousteau  was  presented  as  the  purchaser  of  the 
house  in  the  Rue  Saint-Lazare,  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Cardot  family,  and  he  dined  there  three  days 
later. 

Cardot  lived  in  an  old  house  near  the  Place  du 
Chatelet.  Everything  was  thrifty  in  this  house- 
hold. Economical  motives  put  green  gauze  over  the 
slightest  gildings.  The  furniture  was  covered  with 
brown  linen.  If  no  one  there  felt  any  anxiety  con- 
cerning the  household  fortunes,  he  experienced  a 
strong  desire  to  yawn  in  the  first  half-hour.  Ennui 
was  seated  on  all  the  furniture.  The  draperies 
hung  sadly.  The  dining-room  resembled  that  of  a 
miser.  If  Lousteau  had  not  known  from  Malaga  in 
advance,  at  the  mere  sight  of  this  household  he 
would  have  divined  that  the  notary's  existence  was 
passed  on  another  scene.  The  journalist  saw  a  tall, 
blonde  young  girl,  with  blue  eyes,  timid  and  lan- 
guorous at  once.  He  pleased  the  eldest  brother, 
fourth   clerk    in   the   office,    whom    literary   glory 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  251 

attracted  with  its  snares,  and  who  was  destined  to 
be  Cardot's  successor.  The  younger  sister  was 
about  twelve  years  of  age.  Lousteau,  caparisoned 
with  a  little  Jesuitical  air,  assumed  the  character  of 
a  man  religious  and  monarchical  with  the  mother,  he 
was  serious,  precise,  sedate,  complimentary. 

Twenty  days  after  the  presentation,  at  the  fourth 
dinner,  Felicie  Cardot,  who  had  been  studying 
Lousteau  out  of  the  corners  of  her  eyes,  went  to 
offer  him  a  cup  of  coffee  in  the  embrasure  of  a  window 
and  said  to  him  in  a  low  voice,  with  tears  in  her 
eyes : 

"  All  my  life,  monsieur,  will  be  employed  in 
thanking  you  for  your  devotion  to  a  poor  girl. — " 

Lousteau  was  moved,  so  much  was  there  in  the 
look,  in  the  accent,  in  the  attitude. 

"She  will  make  the  happiness  of  an  honest 
man,"  he  said  to  himself  as  he  pressed  her  hand  for 
sole  reply. 

Madame  Cardot  considered  her  son-in-law  as  a 
man  with  a  promising  future  ;  but,  among  all  the 
fine  qualities  which  she  attributed  to  him,  she  was 
delighted  with  his  morality.  Prompted  by  the 
shrewd  notary,  Etienne  had  given  his  word  to  have 
neither  natural  child  nor  any  liaison  that  might 
compromise  the  future  of  the  dear  Felicie. 

"You  may  think  me  a  little  exacting,"  said  the 
pious  matron  to  the  journalist,  "  but  when  you  give 
a  pearl  like  my  Felicie  to  a  man,  you  should  watch 
over  her  future.  I  am  not  one  of  those  mothers 
who   are  delighted  to  get  rid  of  their   daughters. 


252  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

Monsieur  Cardot  goes  ahead,  he  presses  his  daugh- 
ter's marriage,  he  wishes  to  have  it  take  place. 
We  differ  only  in  this. — Although  with  a  man  like 
you,  monsieur,  a  writer  whose  youth  has  been  pre- 
served from  actual  demoralization  by  work,  one 
might  be  secure,  nevertheless,  you  would  make  a 
jest  of  me  if  I  should  marry  my  daughter  with  my 
eyes  shut.  I  know  very  well  that  you  are  not 
an  innocent,  and  I  should  be  very  much  grieved 
at  it  for  my  Felicie" — this  was  said  in  his  ear; 
" — but  if  you  had  one  of  those  liaisons — Now, 
monsieur,  you  have  heard  of  Madame  Roguin,  the 
wife  of  a  notary  who  has  had,  most  unfortunately 
for  our  profession,  so  cruel  a  celebrity.  Madame 
Roguin  is  connected;  and  that  since  1820,  with  a 
banker — " 

"Yes,  Du  Tillet,"  replied  Etienne,  biting  his  lips 
when  he  thought  of  the  imprudence  with  which  he 
admitted  knowing  Du  Tillet. 

"Well,  monsieur,  if  you  were  a  mother,  would 
you  not  tremble  in  thinking  that  your  daughter 
might  have  the  fate  of  Madame  du  Tillet  ?  At  her 
age,  and  nee  De  Granville,  to  have  for  rival  a  woman 
of  over  fifty  ! —  I  would  rather  see  my  daugh- 
ter dead  than  give  her  to  a  man  who  would  have 
relations  with  a  married  woman —  A  grisette,  a 
woman  of  the  theatre,  can  be  taken  and  left !  Ac- 
cording to  my  opinion,  this  sort  of  woman  is  not 
dangerous,  love  is  a  trade  for  her,  she  belongs  to 
no  one,  one  lost,  two  are  found  ! —  But  a  woman 
who  has  failed  in  her  duty  should  attach  herself  to 


THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  253 

her  fault,  she  is  excusable  only  by  her  constancy, 
if  such  a  crime  is  ever  excusable !  It  is  thus 
at  least  that  I  understand  the  fault  of  a  woman 
comme  ilfaut,  and  this  is  what  renders  it  so  much 
to  be  feared. —  " 

Instead  of  seeking  the  meaning  of  these  words, 
Etienne  jested  over  them  at  Malaga's,  where  he 
went  with  his  future  father-in-law  ;  for  the  notary 
and  the  journalist  were  on  the  best  terms  together. 
Lousteau  was  already  posing  before  his  intimate 
friends  as  an  important  man, — his  life  henceforth 
was  to  have  a  meaning,  chance  had  taken  care  of 
him,  in  a  few  days  he  was  going  to  become  proprie- 
tor of  a  charming  little  hotel  in  the  Rue  Saint-Lazare  ; 
he  was  going  to  marry,  he  was  taking  a  charming 
wife,  he  would  have  about  twenty  thousand  francs 
of  income  ;  he  could  now  give  a  career  to  his  ambi- 
tion ;  he  was  beloved  by  his  young  bride,  he  was 
connected  with  several  honorable  families.  In  short, 
he  was  sailing  with  full  sails  over  the  blue  lake  of 
hope.  Madame  Cardot  had  desired  to  see  the  en- 
gravings of  Gil  Bias,  one  of  those  illustrated  books 
which  the  French  publishing  houses  were  then  un- 
dertaking, and  Lousteau,  the  evening  before,  had 
brought  her  the  first  numbers.  The  notary's  wife 
had  her  plan,  she  had  borrowed  this  book  only  in 
order  to  return  it,  she  wished  for  a  pretext  to  fall 
unexpectedly  into  the  apartment  of  her  future  son- 
in-law.  By  the  aspect  of  this  bachelor  lodging,  which 
her  husband  described  to  her  as  charming,  she 
would  know  more,  she  said,  than  anyone  could  tell 


254  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

her  concerning  Lousteau's  habits.  Her  sister-in- 
law,  Madame  Camusot,  from  whom  the  fatal  secret 
was  hidden,  was  frightened  at  this  marriage  for  her 
niece.  Monsieur  Camusot,  counsellor  at  the  royal 
court,  the  son  of  a  first  marriage,  had  said  to  his 
mother-in-law,  Madame  Camusot,  sister  of  Maitre 
Cardot,  some  things  that  were  very  little  flattering 
for  the  journalist.  Lousteau,  this  man  so  clever, 
saw  nothing  extraordinary  in  the  wife  of  a  rich 
notary  wishing  to  see  a  fifteen-franc  volume  before 
purchasing  it.  The  man  of  wit  never  stoops  to 
examine  the  bourgeois,  who  escape  his  observa- 
tion, thanks  to  this  inattention  ;  and,  while  he  is 
deriding  them,  they  have  the  time  to  garrote  him. 
In  the  early  days  of  January,  1837,  Madame  Cardot 
and  her  daughter  took  then  an  urbaine — sort  of 
hackney  coach — and  went  to  the  Rue  des  Martyrs, 
to  return  the  numbers  of  the  Gil  Bias  to  Felicie's 
intended,  charmed,  both  of  them,  at  the  prospect  of 
seeing  Lousteau's  apartment.  This  species  of  dom- 
iciliary visits  is  made  in  the  old  bourgeois  families. 
Etienne's  porter  was  not  to  be  found,  but  his  .daugh- 
ter, learning  from  the  worthy  bourgeoise  that  she  was 
speaking  to  the  mother-in-law  and  the  future  wife  of 
Monsieur  Lousteau,  delivered  to  them  the  key  of  the 
apartment  all  the  more  readily  that  Madame  Cardot 
put  a  piece  of  gold  in  her  hand.  It  was  then  about 
noon,  the  hour  at  which  the  journalist  returned  from 
dejeuner  at  the  cafe  Anglais.  As  he  traversed  the 
space  between  Notre  Dame  de  Lorette  and  the  Rue 
des  Martyrs,  Lousteau  happened  to  look  at  a  fiacre 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  255 

which  was  ascending  the  Rue  du  Faubourg-Mont- 
martre,  and  thought  he  had  seen  a  vision  in  perceiv- 
ing in  it  the  face  of  Dinah  !  He  was  frozen  stiff  on 
his  two  legs  in  finding  in  fact  his  Didine  at  the  door. 

"  What  doest  thou  here  ?  "  cried  he. 

Theyou  was  not  possible  with  a  woman  who  was 
to  be  turned  away. 

"Eh,  my  love,"  she  exclaimed,  "hast  thou  not 
read  my  letters  ? — " 

"Yes,"  replied  Lousteau. 

"  Well  ? " 

"Well?" 

"  Thou  art  a  father!"  replied  the  woman  from 
the  provinces. 

"  Bah  !  "  he  exclaimed,  without  taking  into  con- 
sideration the  barbarity  of  this  exclamation.  "  In 
fact,"  he  said  to  himself,  "  she  must  be  prepared  for 
the  catastrophe." 

He  made  a  sign  to  the  coachman  to  stop,  gave  his 
hand  to  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  and  left  the  coach- 
man with  the  vehicle  full  of  trunks,  promising  him- 
self emphatically  to  send  away  illico,  he  said  to  him- 
self, the  woman  and  her  packages  to  the  place  she 
came  from. 

"  Monsieur !  monsieur !  "  cried  the  little  Pamela. 

The  child  was  intelligent  and  knew  that  three 
women  should  not  meet  in  a  bachelor's  apartment. 

"Good!  good!"  said  the  journalist,  conducting 
Dinah  in. 

Pamela  then  thought  that  this  unknown  woman 
was  a  relative,  she  added  however : 


256  THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  The  key  is  in  the  door,  your  mother-in-law  is 
there!" 

In  his  perturbation,  and  in  hearing  from  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye  a  multitude  of  phrases,  Etienne  un- 
derstood :  My  mother  is  there,  the  only  circumstance 
which,  to  him,  was  possible,  and  he  entered.  His 
future  bride  and  the  mother-in-law,  then  in  the  bed- 
chamber, concealed  themselves  in  a  corner  when 
they  saw  Etienne  with  a  woman. 

"  At  last,  my  fitienne,  my  angel,  I  am  yours  for 
life,"  cried  Dinah,  throwing  herself  upon  his  neck 
and  clasping  him  close  whilst  he  put  the  key  inside. 
"  Life  was  a  perpetual  agony  for  me  in  that  Chateau 
d'Anzy,  I  will  have  it  no  longer,  and,  on  the  day  on 
which  it  was  necessary  to  declare  that  which  consti- 
tutes my  happiness,  well,  I  have  never  found  the 
strength  for  it.  I  bring  you  your  wife  and  your 
child  !  Oh  !  not  to  write  to  me  !  to  leave  me  two 
months  without  news  ! — " 

"But  Dinah,  you  put  me  in  an  embarras- 
sing— " 

"  Do  you  love  me  ?  " 

"  How  could  I  not  love  you  ? —  But  would  it  not 
have  been  better  to  have  remained  at  Sancerre  ? — 
I  am  here  in  the  most  complete  poverty,  and  I  fear 
to  make  you  share  it. — " 

"  Your  poverty  will  be  paradise  for  me.  I  wish 
to  live  here,  without  ever  going  away — " 

"  Mon  Dien,  that  is  pretty  in  words,  but — " 

Dinah  sat  down  and  burst  into  tears  on  hearing 
this  phrase  pronounced  brusquely.     Lousteau  was 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  257 

unable    to    resist  this    explosion,    he   clasped    the 
baroness  in  his  arms  and  embraced  her. 

"  Do  not  weep,  Didine  !  "  he  cried. 

In  uttering  this  phrase,  the  feuilletonist  perceived 
in  the  glass  the  phantom  of  Madame  Cardot,  who, 
from  the  back  of  the  chamber,  was  looking  at 
him. 

"  Come  Didine,  go  yourself  with  Pamela  to  see 
your  trunks  taken  down,"  he  said  to  her  in  her  ear. 
"  Go,  do  not  weep,  we  shall  be  happy." 

He  conducted  her  to  the  door,  and  returned  toward 
the  notary's  wife  to  appease  the  storm. 

"  Monsieur,"  said  Madame  Cardot  to  him,  "  I  con- 
gratulate myself  for  having  wished  to  see  for  myself 
the  household  of  him  who  was  to  become  my  son-in- 
law.  If  my  Felicie  should  die  of  it,  she  shall  never  be 
the  wife  of  a  man  such  as  you.  You  owe  yourself  to 
the  happiness  of  your  Didine,  monsieur." 

And  the  pious  woman  went  out,  leading  Felicie, 
who  was  weeping  also,  for  Felicie  had  become  accus- 
tomed to  Lousteau.  The  frightful  Madame  Cardot 
got  into  her  urbaine  again,  staring  with  an  insolent 
fixedness  at  the  poor  Dinah,  who  felt  still  in  her 
heart  the  dagger  stroke  of  the  That  is  pretty  in  words  ; 
but  who,  like  all  loving  women,  believed  neverthe- 
less in  the  Do  not  weep,  Didine  !  Lousteau,  who  did 
not  want  for  that  species  of  resolution  which  the 
hazards  of  an  agitated  life  give,  said  to  himself  : 

"  Didine  has  nobility;  once  notified  of  my  mar- 
riage, she  will  immolate  herself  for  my  future,  and 
1  know  how  to  take  means  to  inform  her  of  it." 
17 


258  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

Delighted  to  have  found  a  ruse  the  success  of 
which  seemed  to  him  certain,  he  commenced  to 
dance  to  the  tune  of  an  air  known  as  Larifla  fla  fla  ! 

"  Then,  Didine  once  packed  off  again,"  he  re- 
sumed, speaking  to  himself,  "I  will  go  to  make  a 
visit  and  a  romance  to  Mamma  Cardot — I  shall  have 
seduced  her  Felicie  at  Saint-Eustache — Felicie,  culp- 
able through  love,  carries  in  her  body  the  gage  of 
our  happiness  and — larifla  fla  fla  ! — the  father  cannot 
contradict  me,  fla  fla — nor  the  daughter — larifla  ! 
Ergo,  the  notary,  his  wife  and  his  daughter  are  all 
trapped,  larifla  fla  fla  ! — " 

To  her  great  astonishment  Dinah  surprised  Etienne 
dancing  a  prohibited  dance. 

"  Your  arrival  and  our  happiness  render  me  drunk 
with  joy,"  he  said  to  her,  thus  explaining  this  exhi- 
bition of  folly. 

"  And  I  who  thought  myself  no  longer  loved  !  " 
cried  the  poor  woman,  dropping  the  handbag  which 
she  was  bringing  in  and  weeping  with  pleasure  in 
the  armchair  into  which  she  had  fallen. 

"  Set  your  things  in  order,  my  angel,"  said 
Etienne,  laughing  in  his  sleeve,  "  I  have  two  words 
to  write  so  that  I  can  break  an  engagement  with  a. 
bachelor  party,  for  I  wish  to  devote  myself  entirely 
to  you.  Order  whatever  you  like,  you  are  here  in 
your  own  house." 

Etienne  wrote  to  Bixiou  : 

"  My  dear  fellow,  my  baroness  has  suddenly  fallen  into  my 
arms,  and  is  going  to  cause  me  to  miss  my  marriage  if  we  do 
not  get  up  one  of  those  little  scenes  the  best  known  in  the 


THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  259 

thousand  and  one  vaudevilles  of  the  Gymnase.  Therefore  I 
count  upon  you  to  come,  like  one  of  Moliere's  old  men,  to  scold 
your  nephew  Leandre  for  his  silliness,  while  the  tenth  Muse 
will  be  hidden  in  my  bed-chamber ;  it  is  a  case  of  taking  her 
by  her  feelings,  strike  hard,  be  cruel,  wound  her.  As  for  my- 
self, you  understand,  I  shall  express  a  blind  devotion  and  I 
shall  be  deaf  in  order  to  give  you  the  right  to  exclaim.  Come, 
if  you  can,  at  seven  o'clock. 

"  Always  yours, 

"E.  LOUSTEAU." 

When  this  letter  had  been  sent  off  by  a  messenger 
to  the  man  in  Paris  who  most  amused  himself  by 
those  mockeries  which  the  artists  have  denominated 
des  charges,  Lousteau  appeared  to  be  eager  to  install 
the  Muse  of  Sancerre  in  his  house  ;  he  occupied  him- 
self with  the  setting  in  order  of  all  the  effects  which 
she  had  brought  with  her,  he  acquainted  her  with  all 
the  beings  and  things  in  the  lodging  with  so  perfect 
a  good  faith,  with  a  pleasure  which  so  overflowed  in 
words  and  caresses,  that  Dinah  might  well  believe 
herself  the  most  beloved  woman  in  the  world.  This 
apartment,  in  which  the  smallest  object  bore  the 
imprint  of  the  mode,  pleased  her  much  more  than 
her  Chateau  d'Anzy.  Pamela  Migeon,  that  intelli- 
gent little  girl  of  fourteen,  was  interrogated  by  the 
journalist,  with  this  end  in  view,  to  know  if  she 
would  be  willing  to  become  the  femme  de  chambre 
of  the  imposing  baroness.  Pamela,  delighted,  en- 
tered upon  her  functions  at  once  by  going  to  order 
the  dinner  at  a  restaurant  on  the  boulevard.  Dinah 
then  comprehended  the  destitution  which  was  hidden 
under  the  purely  superficial  luxury  of  this  bachelor 


2<5o  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

household  when  she  could  find  not  one  of  the  neces- 
sary utensils  of  daily  life.  While  she  was  taking 
possession  of  the  closets,  of  the  bureaus,  she  formed 
the  sweetest  projects,  she- would  change  Lousteau's 
habits,  she  would  make  him  domestic,  she  would 
complete  his  home  comfort.  The  novelty  of  her 
position  concealed  the  misfortune  of  it  from  Dinah, 
she  saw  in  a  mutual  love  the  absolution  of  her  fault, 
and  she  did  not  as  yet  carry  her  eyes  outside  of  this 
apartment.  Pamela,  whose  intelligence  was  equal 
to  that  of  a  lorette,  went  straight  to  Madame  Schontz 
to  ask  of  her  some  silverware,  relating  to  her  what 
had  happened  to  Lousteau.  After  having  placed 
everything  in  her  house  at  Pamela's  disposition, 
Madame  Schontz  hastened  to  Malaga,  her  intimate 
friend,  in  order  to  warn  Cardot  of  the  misfortune 
which  had  befallen  his  future  son-in-law.  Uncon- 
cerned over  the  crisis  which  affected  his  marriage, 
the  journalist  became  more  and  more  charming 
toward  the  woman  from  the  provinces.  The  dinner 
gave  occasion  for  those  charming  childishnesses  of 
lovers  who  have  regained  their  liberty  and  who  are 
happy  to  be  rat  length  together.  When  the  coffee 
had  been  taken,  at  the  moment  Lousteau  was  hold- 
ing his  Dinah  on  his  knees,  before  the  fire,  Pamela 
suddenly  appeared  in  a  great  fright. 

"Here  is  Monsieur  Bixiou  !  what  must  I  say  to 
him?  "  she  asked. 

"  Go  into  the  chamber,"  said  the  journalist  to  his 
mistress,  "  I  will  very  soon  send  him  away  ;  he  is 
one  of  my  most  intimate  friends,  to  whom,  more- 


THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  261 

over,  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  known  my  new 
mode  of  life." 

"  Oh  !  oh  !  two  covers  at  table  and  a  hat  of  dark 
blue  velvet !  "  cried  the  gossip  as  he  entered,  "  I 
am  going  away. — See  what  it  is  to  get  married,  you 
make  your  farewells.  How  rich  one  finds  one's  self 
when  one  moves,  hein?  " 

"  Do  you  think  I  am  going  to  get  married  ?  "  said 
Lousteau. 

"  What !  You  are  no  longer  going  to  get  married, 
now  ?  "  cried  Bixiou. 

"No!" 

"No!  Ah,  now!  what  has  happened  to  you? 
can  it  be  that  you  are  going  to  commit  some  stupid- 
ity? What ! — You,  who  by  a  blessing  from  Heaven 
have  found  twenty  thousand  francs  of  income,  a 
house,  a  wife  belonging  to  one  of  the  first  families 
of  the  upper  bourgeoisie,  in  short,  a  wife  from  the 
Rue  des  Lombards — " 

"  Enough,  enough,  Bixiou,  everything  is  over,  go 
away  !  " 

"  Go  away  !  I  have  the  rights  of  friendship,  I 
will  abuse  them.     What  has  happened  to  you  ?  " 

"  There  has  happened  to  me  that  lady  from  San- 
cerre,  she  is  a  mother,  and  we  are  going  to  live  to- 
gether, happy  for  the  rest  of  our  days. — You  would 
have  known  this  to-morrow,  it  is  as  well  to  inform 
you  of  it  to-day." 

"  '  What  a  lot  of  chimney  tiles  have  fallen  on  my 
head  ! '  as  Arnal  says.  But,  if  this  woman  loves 
you  for  yourself,  my  dear  fellow,  she  will  go  back 


262  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

whence  she  came.  Is  it  to  be  expected  that  a 
woman  from  the  provinces  will  ever  be  able  to  get 
her  sea  legs  on  in  Paris  ?  She  will  mortify  you  in 
every  way.  Do  you  forget  that  she  is  a  woman 
from  the  provinces  ?  why,  she  will  be  as  wearisome 
in  happiness  as  in  misfortune,  she  will  display  more 
talent  in  avoiding  all  grace  than  the  Parisienne  uses 
in  inventing  it.  Listen,  Lousteau !  that  passion 
should  make  you  forget  in  what  kind  of  times  we 
are  living,  I  can  conceive,  but  I,  your  friend,  I  have 
no  mythological  bandages  over  my  eyes. — Well, 
examine  your  position  !  You  have  been  struggling 
along  in  the  literary  world  for  fifteen  years,  you  are 
no  longer  young,  you  are  walking  on  your  uppers, 
you  have  walked  so"  much  ! — Yes,  my  good  fellow, 
you  are  acting  like  the  gamins  of  Paris,  who,  to 
hide  the  holes  in  their  stockings  turn  them  down, 
and  you  carry  your  calves  at  your  heels.  More- 
over, your  pleasantry  is  somewhat  antiquated. 
Your  phrase  is  better  known  than  a  secret  rem- 
edy." 

"  I  will  say  to  you,  as  the  regent  did  to  Cardinal 
Dubois:  That  is  enough  of  kicks  like  that!"  ex- 
claimed Lousteau  in  a  low  tone  of  voice. 

"Oh!  old  young  man,"  replied  Bixiou,  "you 
feel  the  operator's  iron  on  your  wound.  You  have 
exhausted  yourself,  have  you  not  ?  Well,  in  all 
the  fire  of  youth,  under  the  pressure  of  poverty, 
how  much  have  you  earned  ?  You  are  not  exactly 
in  the  first  line,  and  you  have  not  a  thousand  francs 
of  your  own.     There  is  your  position  figured  out. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  263 

Will  you  be  able,  in  the  decline  of  your  powers,  to 
support  a  household  by  your  pen,  when  your  wife, 
if  she  were  honest,  would  not  have  the  lorette's 
resources  for  extracting  a  note  for  a  thousand  from 
the  depths  where  man  keeps  them  ?  You  will  sink 
yourself  in  the  third  cellar  of  the  social  theatre. — 
That  is  only  the  financial  side.  Let  us  look  at  the 
political  side.  We  are  navigating  in  an  epoch  that 
is  essentially  bourgeois,  when  honor,  virtue,  deli- 
cacy, talent,  knowledge,  genius,  in  a  word,  consists 
in  paying  your  notes,  in  owing  nothing  to  any  one, 
and  in  well  managing  your  own  little  affairs.  Take 
a  position,  be  decent,  have  a  wife  and  children,  pay 
your  rents  and  your  taxes,  take  your  turn  on  guard, 
be  like  the  rest  of  the  fusileers  of  your  company, 
and  you  may  aspire  to  anything,  become  minister, 
and  your  chances  will  be  good,  since  you  are  not  a 
Montmorency  !  You  were  going  to  fulfil  all  the 
conditions  required  in  order  to  be  a  man  in  politics, 
you  could  have  done  all  the  dirty  things  exacted  for 
public  employment,  even  to  playing  mediocrity,  you 
would  have  been  almost  natural.  And  for  a  woman 
who  will  leave  you  there,  at  the  usual  end  of  all 
eternal  passions,  in  three,  five  or  seven  years,  after 
having  consumed  your  very  last  powers,  intellectual 
and  physical,  you  turn  your  back  on  the  holy  fam- 
ily, on  the  Rue  des  Lombards,  on  a  whole  political 
future,  on  thirty  thousand  francs  of  income,  on 
public  esteem. — Is  it  in  this  way  that  a  man  who  no 
longer  has  any  illusions,  should  end  ? — You  might 
boii  the  pot  with  an  actress  who  would  render  you 


264  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

happy,  that  is  what  is  called  a  cabinet  question  ; 
but  to  live  with  a  married  woman  ! — that  is  to  draw 
at  sight  on  unhappiness  !  that  is  to  take  all  the  mis- 
eries of  vice  without  having  any  of  its  pleasures — " 

"  Enough,  I  say  to  you,  everything  is  summed  up 
in  a  word, — I  love  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  and  I 
prefer  her  to  all  the  fortunes  of  the  world,  to  all  the 
positions —  I  may  have  allowed  myself  to  be  car- 
ried away  by  a  puff  of  ambition —  but  everything 
yields  to  the  happiness  of  being  a  father." 

"  Ah  !  you  are  going  in  for  paternity  ?  But, 
miserable  man,  we  are  the  fathers  only  of  the  chil- 
dren of  our  lawful  wives  !  What  is  a  dirty  little 
boy  who  does  not  bear  our  name  ?  it  is  the  last 
chapter  of  a  romance  !  It  will  be  taken  away  from 
you,  your  child  !  We  have  seen  that  particular  sub- 
ject in  twenty  vaudevilles,  in  the  last  ten  years — 
Society,  my  dear  fellow,  will  weigh  down  on  you, 
sooner  or  later.  Read  Adolphe  again  !  Oh  !  Mon 
Dieu !  I  see  you,  when  you  become  well  known,  I 
see  you,  unhappy  on  all  fours,  without  considera- 
tion, without  fortune,  struggling  like  the  shareholders 
of  a  stock  company  abandoned  by  their  director. 
Your  director,  for  you,  is  happiness." 

"  Not  a  word  more,  Bixiou." 

"  But  I  have  scarcely  commenced.  Listen,  my 
dear  fellow.  There  have  been  many  attacks  on 
marriage  lately  ;  but,  apart  from  its  advantage  of 
being  the  sole  method  of  establishing  family  succes- 
sion, as  it  offers  to  pretty  fellows  without  a  sou  a 
means  of  securing  a  fortune  in  two  months,  it  resists 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  265 

all  its  disadvantages  !  Thus  there  is  no  bachelor 
who  does  not  repent  sooner  or  later  of  having  failed 
through  his  own  fault  to  make  a  marriage  of  thirty 
thousand  francs  of  income — " 

"  You  will  not  understand  me,  then  !  "  cried  Lous- 
teau  in  an  exasperated  voice,  "go  away —  She  is 
there—" 

"  Pardon  me,  why  did  you  not  say  so  sooner  ? — 
You  are  of  age, — and  she  also,"  he  said  in  a  lower 
tone  of  voice,  but  still  loud  enough  to  be  heard  by 
Dinah.  "She  will  make  you  finely  repent  of  her 
happiness — " 

"  If  it  be  a  folly,  I  wish  to  commit  it —     Adieu  !  " 

"  A  man  overboard  !  "  exclaimed  Bixiou. 

"  May  the  devil  fly  away  with  those  friends  who 
think  they  have  the  right  to  lecture  you,"  said  Lous- 
teau,  opening  the  door  of  his  bedroom,  where  he 
found  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  sunk  in  an  armchair, 
drying  her  eyes  with  an  embroidered  handkerchief. 

"What  have  I  come  here  to  do? — "  she  said. 
"Oh!  Mon  Dieu!  why? — Etienne,  I  am  not  so 
much  a  woman  of  the  provinces  as  you  think — 
You  are  playing  a  trick  on  me." 

"  Dear  angel,"  replied  Lousteau,  taking  Dinah  in 
his  arms,  lifting  her  from  the  armchair  and  conduct- 
ing her  half  dead  into  the  salon,  "  we  have  each  of 
us  exchanged  our  future,  sacrifice  against  sacrifice. 
Whilst  I  was  loving  in  Sancerre,  I  was  being  mar- 
ried here  ;  but  I  resisted —  ah  !  I  was  very  un- 
happy." 

"  Oh  !  I  am  going  away  !  "  cried  Dinah,  rising 


266  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

like  a  crazy  woman  and  making  two  steps  toward 
the  door. 

"You  will  remain,  my  Didine,  everything  is 
ended.  Come  now  !  that  fortune,  is  it  to  be  had  so 
cheap  ?  Should  I  not  have  to  marry  a  tall  blonde 
who  has  a  red  nose,  the  daughter  of  a  notary,  and  take 
on  my  back  a  mother-in-law  who  would  give  points 
to  Madame  Piedefer  in  matters  of  devotion  ! — " 

Pamela  suddenly  burst  into  the  salon  and  came  to 
say  in  Lousteau's  ear : 

"  Madame  Schontz  ! — " 

Lousteau  rose,  left  Dinah  on  the  divan  and  went 
out. 

"  All  is  over,  my  ducky,"  said  the  lorette  to  him. 
"  Cardot  does  not  -wish  to  quarrel  with  his  wife 
because  of  a  son-in-law.  The  pious  one  made  a 
scene —  a  sterling  scene  !  In  short,  the  actual  head 
clerk,  who  has  been  second  head  clerk  for  the  last 
two  years,  accepts  the  girl  and  the  business." 

"The  blackguard!"  cried  Lousteau.  "What! 
in  two  hours,  he  was  able  to  decide — " 

"  Mon  Dien,  it  is  very  simple.  The  rogue,  who 
was  in  the  secrets  of  the  defunct  head  clerk,  guessed 
at  his  employer's  position  in  catching  a  few  words 
of  the  quarrel  with  Madame  Cardot.  The  notary 
counts  upon  your  honor  and  upon  your  delicacy,  for 
everything  is  arranged.  The  clerk,  whose  conduct 
is  excellent, — he  even  took  upon  himself  the  busi- 
ness of  going  to  mass,  a  finished  little  hypocrite  he 
is ! — pleases  the  notary's  wife.  Cardot  and  you, 
you  will   remain  friends.     He   is  going  to  become 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  267 

director  in  an  immense  financial  company,  he  may 
be  able  to  render  you  service.  Ah  !  you  are  awak- 
ing from  a  beautiful  dream  !  " 

"  I  lose  a  fortune,  a  wife,  and — " 

"  A  mistress,"  said  Madame  Schontz,  smiling, 
"  for  now  that  you  are  more  than  married,  you  will 
be  stupid,  you  will  wish  to  return  to  your  own  home, 
you  will  no  longer  have  anything  free  and  open, 
either  in  your  clothes  or  in  your  habits ;  more- 
over, my  Arthur  does  things  very  well,  I  should 
remain  faithful  to  him  and  break  with  Malaga.  Let 
me  see  her  through  the  keyhole  of  the  door !  " 
demanded  the  lorette.  "  There  is  not,"  she  ex- 
claimed, "a  finer  animal  in  the  desert!  you  are 
plundered  !  It  is  worthy,  it  is  dry,  it  is  tearful,  it 
lacks  Lady  Dudley's  turban." 

And  the  lorette  fled. 

"What  more  is  there? — "  asked  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye,  whose  ear  had  caught  the  rustle  of  a  silk 
dress  and  the  murmur  of  a  woman's  voice. 

"  There  is,  my  angel,"  exclaimed  Lousteau, 
"that  we  are  indissolubly  united. — They  have  just 
brought  me  a  verbal  answer  to  the  letter  which  you 
saw  me  write  and  in  which  I  broke  off  my  mar- 
riage— " 

"  The  party  was  here  with  whom  you  broke  your 
engagement  ?  " 

"Yes." 

"  Oh  !  I  shall  be  more  than  your  wife,  I  give  you 
my  life,  I  wish  to  be  your  slave  !  " — said  the  poor, 
abused  creature.     "I  did   not   believe  that  it  was 


268  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

possible  for  me  to  love  you  more  ! — I  shall  not  then 
be  an  accident  in  your  life,  I  shall  be  all  your  life  !  " 

"Yes,  my  beautiful,  my  noble  Didine — " 

"  Swear  to  me,"  she  went  on,  "that  we  can  be 
separated  only  by  death  ! — " 

Lousteau  wished  to  embellish  his  oath  by  his  most 
seductive  purrings.  For  this  reason.  Between  the 
door  of  his  apartment  where  he  had  received  the 
lorette's  kiss  of  farewell  and  that  of  the  salon  where 
reclined  the  Muse  stunned  by  so  many  successive 
shocks,  Lousteau  had  recalled  the  precarious  state 
of  the  little  La  Baudraye,  his  fortune,  and  that 
speech  of  Bianchon's  concerning  Dinah  :  "  She  will 
be  a  rich  widow  !  "     And  he  said  to  himself  : 

"  I  would  rather'  a  hundred  times  have  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye  for  a  wife  than  Felicie  !  " 

Therefore  his  decision  was  promptly  taken.  He 
resolved  to  play  the  part  of  love  again  with  an  ad- 
mirable perfection.  As  it  happened,  his  base 
scheming  and  his  pretended  violent  passion  brought 
about  unfortunate  results.  In  fact,  during  her  jour- 
ney from  Sancerre  to  Paris,  Madame  de  la  Baudraye 
had  planned  to  live  in  her  own  apartment,  a  few 
steps  from  Lousteau's  ;  but  the  proofs  of  love  which 
her  lover  had  just  given  her  in  renouncing  so  beau- 
tiful a  future,  and  above  all,  the  so  complete  happi- 
ness of  the  first  days  of  this  illegal  marriage,  pre- 
vented her  from  proposing  this  separation.  The 
next  day  should  be,  and  was,  a  fete  in  the  midst  of 
which  such  a  proposition  made  to  her  angel  would 
have  produced  the  most  horrible  discord.     On  his 


THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  269 

side,  Lousteau,  who  wished  to  maintain  Dinah  in  a 
state  of  dependence  upon  himself,  kept  her  in  a  con- 
tinual intoxication  by  means  of  constant  festivities. 
These  events,  then,  prevented  these  two  very  intelli- 
gent beings  from  avoiding  the  pit  into  which  they 
fell,  that  of  a  senseless  cohabitation  of  which,  un- 
fortunately, so  many  examples  are  to  be  found  in 
Paris  in  the  literary  world. 

Thus  was  accomplished  in  its  full  purport,  the  pro- 
gramme of  love  in  the  provinces  so  jestingly  traced 
by  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  to  Lousteau,  but  which 
neither  one  nor  the  other  remembered.  Passion  is 
deaf  and  dumb  from  birth. 

This  winter  was  then,  at  Paris,  for  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye,  all  that  the  month  of  October  had  been 
for  her  atSancerre.  Etienne,  in  order  to  initiate  his 
wife  into  the  life  of  Paris,  mingled  with  this  honey- 
moon, theatre  parties,  to  which  Dinah  would  go  only 
in  the  baignoire  boxes.  In  the  beginning,  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye  preserved  some  vestiges  of  her  pro- 
vincial prudery,  she  was  afraid  of  being  seen,  she 
concealed  her  happiness.  She  said  :  "  Monsieur  de 
Clagny,  Monsieur  Gravier,  are  quite  capable  of  fol- 
lowing me!"  She  feared  Sancerre  in  Paris.  Lous- 
teau, whose  self-love  was  excessive,  took  charge  of 
her  education,  he  conducted  her  into  the  best  houses 
of  the  female  faiseurs,  and  showed  to  her  the 
young  women  then  most  in  fashion,  recommending 
them  to  her  as  models  to  follow.  Thus  the  provin- 
cial exterior  of  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  promptly 
underwent  a  change.     Lousteau,  when  he  met  his 


270  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

friends,  received  compliments  on  his  conquest. 
During  this  season,  Etienne  produced  but  little  litera- 
ture and  ran  considerably  in  debt,  although  the  proud 
Dinah  had  paid  for  her  toilets  by  her  own  savings 
and  considered  that  she  had  not  caused  the  slightest 
expense  to  her  dear  one.  At  the  expiration  of  three 
months  Dinah  was  acclimated,  she  had  delighted 
herself  with  the  music  at  the  Italiens,  she  was  ac- 
quainted with  the  repertory  of  all  the  theatres,  their 
actors,  the  journals  and  the  jests  of  the  moment ;  she 
had  become  accustomed  to  this  life  of  continual 
emotions,  to  this  rapid  current  in  which  everything 
is  forgotten.  She  no  longer  stretched  her  neck,  no 
longer  carried  her  nose  in  the  air,  like  a  statue  of 
Astonishment,  at  the  continual  surprises  which  Paris 
offers  to  strangers.  She  knew  how  to  breathe  the  air 
of  this  brilliant  world,  intelligent,  animated,  fruitful, 
in  which  the  people  of  wit  feel  themselves  in  their 
element  and  which  they  can  no  longer  leave.  One 
morning  when  reading  the  journals,  all  of  which 
Lousteau  received,  two  lines  recalled  her  to  Sancerre 
and  her  past,  two  lines  which  were  not  foreign  to 
her,  and  which  were  as  follows  : 

"  Monsieur  le  Baron  de  Clagny,  procureur  du  roi 
at  the  tribunal  of  Sancerre,  has  been  appointed 
deputy  to  the  procureur-general  at  the  royal  court 
at  Paris." 

"  How  he  loves  you,  that  virtuous  magistrate  !  " 
said  the  journalist,  smiling. 

"  Poor  man  !  "  she  replied.  "  What  did  I  say  to 
you  ?  he  follows  me." 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  271 

At  this  moment,  Etienne  and  Dinah  were  experi- 
encing the  most  brilliant  and  most  complete  phase 
of  passion,  that  period  in  which  one  becomes  per- 
fectly habituated  to  the  other,  and  in  which,  never- 
theless, love  preserves  its  savor.  Each  knows  the 
other,  but  each  is  not  fully  comprehended,  there  has 
been  no  repassing  in  the  same  depths  of  the  soul,  there 
has  been  no  such  mutual  study  as  to  know — as  hap- 
pens later — the  thoughts,  the  words,  the  gesture  ap- 
propriated to  the  greatest  as  to  the  smallest  event. 
Both  are  in  a  state  of  enchantment,  there  have  been 
no  collisions,  no  divergencies  of  opinion,  no  indiffer- 
ent glances.  The  souls  trend,  apropos  of  every- 
thing, in  the  same  direction.  Thus,  Dinah  spoke  to 
Lousteau  in  those  magic  words,  full  of  expression,  in 
those  looks  more  magical  still  which  all  women 
know  how  to  find  at  these  moments. 

"  Kill  me  when  you  no  longer  love  me. — If  you 
should  love  me  no  longer,  I  believe  that  I  could  kill 
you  and  kill  myself  afterward." 

To  these  delightful  exaggerations,  Lousteau  re- 
plied : 

"  All  that  I  ask  of  God,  is  to  make  you  see  my 
constancy.     It  will  be  you  who  will  abandon  me  !  " 

"  My  love  is  unlimited — " 

"  Unlimited,"  repeated  Lousteau.  "  Let  us  see  ! 
I  am  carried  off  by  a  bachelor  party,  I  meet  again 
one  of  my  former  mistresses,  she  derides  me ; 
through  vanity  I  pretend  to  be  a  free  man,  and  I  do 
not  return  here  until  the  next  morning. — Would 
you  love  me  still  ?  " 


272  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"  A  woman  is  certain  of  being  loved  only  when 
she  is  preferred,  and,  if  you  returned  to  me,  if — 
Oh  !  you  enable  me  to  comprehend  the  happiness 
of  forgiving  a  fault  to  an  adored  one — " 

"  Well,  I  am  then  loved  for  the  first  time  in  my 
life  !  "  exclaimed  Lousteau. 

"  You  perceive  it  at  last !  "  she  replied. 

Lousteau  proposed  that  they  should  each  write  a 
letter  in  which  they  should  explain  the  reasons 
which  compelled  them  to  end  by  suicide ;  and, 
with  this  letter  in  possession,  either  could  kill 
the  faithless  one  without  danger.  Notwithstanding 
their  promises  exchanged,  neither  one  nor  the  other 
wrote  the  letter.  Happy  for  the  moment,  the  jour- 
nalist promised  himself  to  deceive  Dinah  at  his 
ease  when  he  should  become  weary  of  her,  and  to 
sacrifice  everything  to  the  exigencies  of  this  deceiv- 
ing. For  him,  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  was  a  com- 
plete fortune.  Nevertheless,  he  was  under  a  yoke. 
In  marrying  in  this  manner,  Madame  de  la  Baudraye 
permitted  to  be  seen  the  nobility  of  her  thoughts 
and  that  power  which  gives  self-respect.  In  this 
complete  intimacy,  in  which  each  one  lays  down  his 
mask,  the  young  woman  preserved  her  modesty, 
displayed  her  masculine  integrity  and  that  strength 
peculiar  to  the  ambitions  which  formed  the  base  of 
her  character.  Lousteau  therefore  conceived  for 
her  an  involuntary  esteem.  Now  that  she  had  be- 
come a  Parisienne,  Dinah  was,  moreover,  superior 
to  the  most  charming  lorette, — she  could  be  amus- 
ing, utter  witticisms  like  Malaga  ;  but  her  education, 


THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  273 

the  character  of  her  mind,  her  extended  reading, 
enabled  her  to  make  her  wit  general ;  while  the 
Schontzes  and  the  Florines  exercised  them  only  in  a 
very  circumscribed  range. 

"  There  is  in  Dinah,"  said  Etienne  to  Bixiou, 
"  the  stuff  of  a  Ninon  and  of  a  De  Stael." 

"  A  woman  in  whom  is  to  be  found  a  library  and 
a  seraglio,  is  very  dangerous,"  answered  the  mocker. 

When  her  pregnancy  became  visible,  Madame  de 
la  Baudraye  resolved  not  to  leave  the  apartment ; 
but,  before  shutting  herself  up,  to  take  no  more 
excursions  but  into  the  country,  she  wished  to  be 
present  at  the  first  representation  of  one  of  Nathan's 
dramas.  This  species  of  literary  solemnity  occupied 
the  two  thousand  persons  who  thought  themselves 
all  Paris.  Dinah,  who  had  never  seen  a  first  repre- 
sentation, experienced  a  very  natural  curiosity. 
She  had,  moreover,  arrived  at  such  a  degree  of 
affection  for  Lousteau  that  she  gloried  in  her  fault ; 
she  assumed  a  brute  strength  with  which  to  affront 
the  world,  she  wished  to  look  at  it  face  to  face, 
without  turning  her  head.  She  wore  a  charming 
toilet,  appropriate  to  her  invalid  air,  to  the  sickly 
roundness  and  softness  of  her  figure.  Her  pale 
skin  gave  her  a  distinguished  expression,  and  her 
black  hair,  arranged  in  bandeaux,  set  off  still  more 
this  pallor.  Her  sparkling  gray  eyes  seemed  more 
beautiful  surrounded  by  the  dark  circles  of  fatigue. 
But  a  terrible  experience  was  before  her.  By  a 
chance  common  enough,  the  box  given  to  the  journal- 
ist was  in  the  first  tier  next  to  that  taken  by  Anna 
18 


274  THE   MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

Grossetete.  These  two  intimate  friends  did  not  bow 
to  each  other  and  did  not  wish  to  recognize  each  other. 
At  the  end  of  the  first  act  Lousteau  left  his  box, 
leaving  Dinah  there  alone,  exposed  to  the  fire  of  all 
the  looks,  to  the  inspection  of  all  the  opera  glasses, 
whilst  the  Baronne  de  la  Fontaine  and  the  Comtesse 
Marie  de  Vandenesse,  who  had  come  with  Anna, 
were  receiving  some  of  the  most  distinguished  men 
in  the  highest  circles.  The  solitude  in  which  Dinah 
remained  was  a  torture  all  the  greater  that  she 
could  not  keep  herself  in  countenance  by  examining 
the  boxes  with  her  lorgnette  ;  it  was  in  vain  that 
she  assumed  a  dignified  and  thoughtful  attitude, 
allowing  her  look  to  dwell  on  vacancy,  she  felt 
herself  too  much  the  object  of  all  eyes  ;  she  could 
not  conceal  her  embarrassment,  she  was  somewhat 
provincial,  she  displayed  her  handkerchief,  she 
made,  involuntarily,  gestures  which  she  had  forbid- 
den herself.  Finally,  in  the  entr'acte  between  the 
second  and  third  acts,  a  man  opened  the  door  of 
Dinah's  box  !  Monsieur  de  Clagny  appeared,  re- 
spectful, but  sorrowful. 

"I  am  happy  to  see  you  that  I  may  express  to 
you  all  the  pleasure  which  your  promotion  gave 
me,"  she  said  to  him. 

"  Eh  !  madame,  for  whom  did  I  come  to  Paris? — " 

"  Why  !  "  said  she,  "  did  I  then  have  something 
to  do  with  your  appointment  ?  " 

"  Everything.  When  you  no  longer  lived  in  San- 
cerre,  Sancerre  became  intolerable  to  me,  I  should 
have  died  there — " 


THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  275 

"Your  sincere  friendship  does  me  good,"  she 
said,  offering  her  hand  to  the  deputy.  "I  am  in  a 
situation  to  cherish  my  true  friends  ;  now  I  know 
their  value —  I  thought  I  had  lost  your  esteem  ; 
but  the  testimony  which  you  give  me  by  your  visit 
touches  me  more  than  your  ten  years  of  attach- 
ment." 

"  You  are  the  object  of  the  curiosity  of  the  entire 
audience,"  replied  the  deputy.  "  Ah  !  dear,  is  this 
your  proper  place  ?  Could  you  not  have  been 
happy  and  remained  honored  ?  I  have  heard  it  said 
that  you  are  the  mistress  of  Monsieur  Etienne  Lous- 
teau,  that  you  are  living  together  in  marital  rela- 
tions ! —  You  have  broken  with  society  for  ever, 
even  for  the  time  when,  if  you  should  marry  your 
lover,  you  would  stand  in  need  of  that  consideration 
which  you  despise  to-day —  Should  you  not  be 
in  your  house,  with  your  mother,  who  loves  you 
enough  to  cover  you  with  her  protection  ?  at  least 
appearances  would  be  preserved — " 

"  I  am  wrong  in  being  here,"  she  replied,  "that 
is  all.  I  have  said  adieu  forever  to  all  the  advantages 
which  the  world  accords  to  women  who  are  able 
to  accommodate  their  happiness  to  the  conven- 
tionalities. My  abnegation  is  so  complete  that  I 
v/ould  have  wished  to  beat  down  everything 
around  me  so  as  to  make  of  my  love  a  vast  desert 
full  of  God,  of  him  and  of  myself —  We  have 
made  too  many  sacrifices  for  each  other  not  to 
be  united  ;  united  by  shame,  if  you  like,  but  in- 
dissolubly  united —     I  am  happy,  and  so  happy  that 


276  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

I  can  love  you  at  my  ease,  as  a  friend,  confide  in 
you  more  than  in  the  past ;  for  now  I  have  need  of 
a  friend !— " 

The  magistrate  was  truly  grand,  and  even  sub- 
lime. To  this  declaration,  in  which  Dinah's  soul 
vibrated,  he  replied  with  a  heartrending  sound  in  his 
voice  : 

"  I  should  like  to  go  to  see  you  in  order  to  know 
if  you  are  loved —  1  shall  be  at  ease,  your  future 
will  no  longer  affright  me —  Does  your  friend  com- 
prehend the  grandeur  of  your  sacrifices,  and  is  there 
gratitude  in  his  love  ? — " 

"  Come  to  the  Rue  des  Martyrs,  and  you  shall 
see!" 

"Yes,  I  will  go/'  he  said.  "I  have  already 
passed  before  the  door  without  daring  to  ask  for 
you.  You  do  not  yet  know  literature,"  he  resumed. 
"  Certainly  there  are  to  be  found  glorious  excep- 
tions ;  but  these  men  of  letters  are  followed  by  un- 
heard of  evils,  amongst  which  I  count  in  the  first 
rank  the  publicity  which  brands  everything !  A 
wife  commits  a  fault  with — " 

"  A  procureur  du  roi,"  said  the  baroness,  smiling. 

"  Well,  after  a  rupture,  there  are  some  resources, 
the  world  has  learned  nothing ;  but,  with  a  man 
more  or  less  celebrated,  the  public  has  heard  every- 
thing. Eh  !  see —  what  an  example  have  you  here 
under  your  eyes.  You  are  back  to  back  with  the 
Comtesse  Marie  de  Vandenesse,  who  has  all  but 
committed  the  last  follies  for  a  man  more  celebrated 
than  Lousteau,  for  Nathan,  and  now  they  are  sepa- 


THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  277 

rated  to  the  point  of  not  recognizing  each  other — 
After  having  gone  to  the  very  edge  of  the  gulf,  the 
countess  was  saved,  no  one  knows  how,  she  left 
neither  her  husband  nor  her  house  ;  but  as  it  con- 
cerned a  celebrated  man,  she  was  talked  of  during  a 
whole  winter.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  great  fortune, 
the  great  name  and  the  position  of  her  husband,  had 
it  not  been  for  the  wise  conduct  of  this  statesman, 
who  displayed,  it  is  said,  the  greatest  consideration 
for  his  wife,  she  would  have  been  lost, — no  other 
wife  could  have  remained  honored  as  she  is — " 

"  How  was  Sancerre  when  you  left  it  ?  "  asked 
Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  to  change  the  conversa- 
tion. • 

"  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  said  that  your  delayed 
pregnancy  required  that  your  delivery  should  take 
place  in  Paris,  and  that  he  had  desired  that  you 
should  go  there  to  be  under  the  care  of  the  princes 
of  the  science  of  medicine,"  replied  the  deputy, 
readily  divining  what  Dinah  wished  to  know. 
"  Thus,  notwithstanding  the  uproar  which  your  de- 
parture occasioned,  up  to  this  evening  you  were 
still  within  the  law." 

"Ah!"  she  exclaimed,  "Monsieur  de  la  Bau- 
draye still  preserves  hopes  ?  " 

"  Your  husband,  madame,  has  done  as  he  always 
does, — he  calculated." 

The  magistrate  left  the  box  as  he  saw  the  jour- 
nalist enter,  and  he  bowed  to  him  politely. 

"  You  are  having  more  of  a  success  than  the  piece 
has,"  said  £tienne  to  Dinah. 


278  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

This  brief  moment  of  triumph  gave  more  pleasure 
to  this  woman  than  she  had  had  during  her  whole 
provincial  life ;  but,  when  she  came  out  of  the 
theatre,  she  was  thoughtful. 

"  What  is  the  matter,  my  Didine  ?  "  asked  Lous- 
teau. 

"I  am  asking  myself  how  a  woman  can  rise 
superior  to  the  world's  opinion." 

"  There  are  two  ways, — be  Madame  de  Stael,  or 
possess  two  hundred  thousand  francs  of  income." 

"Society,"  she  said,  "has  its  hold  upon  us 
through  vanity,  through  the  desire  for  appearance — 
Bah  !  we  will  be  philosophers." 


This  evening  was  the  last  blaze  of  the  deceitful 
comfort  in  which  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  had  been 
living  since  her  arrival  in  Paris.  Three  days  later, 
she  perceived  a  cloud  on  Lousteau's  forehead, — he 
was  taking  turns  around  the  lawn  of  his  little  garden 
while  smoking  a  cigar.  This  woman,  whom  the 
mode  of  life  followed  by  the  little  La  Baudraye  had 
familiarized  with  the  habit  and  the  pleasure  of  never 
being  in  debt,  now  learned  that  her  household  was 
without  funds  in  presence  of  two  quarters'  rent  due, 
on  the  eve,  in  fact,  of  a  writ!  This  stern  real- 
ity of  the  Parisian  life  pierced  Dinah's  heart  like  a 
thorn  ;  she  repented  of  having  led  Lousteau  into  the 
dissipations  of  love.  It  is  so  difficult  to  pass  from 
pleasure  to  work  that  happiness  has  devoured  more 
poesies  than  misfortune  has  ever  made  spring  up  in 
luminous  jets.  Happy  in  seeing  Etienne  at  his  ease, 
smoking  a  cigar  after  his  dejeuner,  his  countenance 
expanded,  stretched  out  like  a  lizard  in  the  sun, 
Dinah  had  never  found  the  courage  to  make  herself 
the  official  summoning  him  to  new  labors.  She  now 
conceived  the  plan  of  pawning,  by  means  of  the 
Sieur  Migeon,  Pamela's  father,  the  few  jewels 
(279) 


280  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

which  she  possessed,  and  on  which  my  aunt,  for  she 
was  beginning  to  speak  the  language  of  the  quarter, 
lent  her  nine  hundred  francs.  She  kept  three  hun- 
dred francs  for  her  baby  linen,  for  the  expenses  of 
her  lying-in,  and  joyfully  handed  the  required  sum 
to  Lousteau,  who  was  laboriously  cultivating,  furrow 
by  furrow,  or,  if  you  prefer,  line  by  line,  a  novel 
for  a  review. 

"  My  kitten,"  she  said  to  him,  "  finish  your  novel 
without  sacrificing  anything  to  necessity,  polish  your 
style,  dig  out  your  subject.  I  have  played  the  lady 
too  much,  I  am  going  to  be  a  bourgeoise  and  manage 
the  household." 

For  the  last  four  months,  Etienne  had  been  taking 
Dinah  to  dine  at  the  Cafe  Riche,  in  a  private  cab- 
inet reserved  for  them.  The  woman  from  the  prov- 
inces was  appalled  to  learn  that  Etienne  was  in  debt 
there  in  the  sum  of  five  hundred  francs  for  the  last 
two  weeks. 

"What!  we  drink  wine  at  six  francs  a  bottle! 
a  Normandy  sole  costs  a  hundred  sous  ! —  A  roll  of 
bread  twenty  centimes! — "  she  cried,  reading  the 
bill  which  the  journalist  extended  toward  her. 

"  But,  to  be  robbed  by  a  restaurant-keeper  or  by 
a  cook,  there  is  very  little  difference  between  them 
for  us,"  said  Lousteau. 

"  Henceforth,  for  the  price  of  these  dinners,  you 
shall  live  like  a  prince." 

After  having  obtained  from  the  landlord  a  kitchen 
and  two  rooms  for  servants,  Madame  de  la  Baudraye 
wrote  two  lines  to  her  mother  to  ask  her  for  some 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  281 

linen  and  a  loan  of  a  thousand  francs  ;  she  received 
two  trunks  full  of  linen,  some  silverware,  two  thou- 
sand francs,  by  an  honest  and  pious  woman  cook 
whom  her  mother  sent  her.  Ten  days  after  the 
evening  at  the  theatre  where  they  had  met,  Monsieur 
de  Clagny  came  to  see  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  at 
four  o'clock,  after  he  had  left  the  Palais,  and  he 
found  her  embroidering  a  little  cap.  The  sight  of 
this  woman,  so  proud,  so  ambitious,  whose  mind 
was  so  cultivated,  who  was  so  well  enthroned  in  the 
Chateau  d'Anzy,  fallen  to  household  cares  and  to 
sewing  tor  the  infant  that  was  to  come,  greatly  affected 
the  poor  magistrate  who  had  just  left  the  court  of 
assizes.  When  he  saw  the  needle-prickings  on  one 
of  those  tapering  fingers  that  he  had  kissed,  he  com- 
prehended that  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  did  not  make 
of  this  occupation  merely  a  recreation  of  maternal 
love.  During  his  first  interview,  the  magistrate  read 
Dinah's  soul.  This  perspicacity  in  a  man  whose 
affections  are  engaged  required  a  superhuman  effort. 
He  discovered  that  Dinah  wished  to  make  herself 
the  good  genius  of  the  journalist,  to  set  him  in  a 
noble  path  ;  she  had  inferred  some  moral  disorder 
from  the  difficulties  of  material  life.  Between  two 
beings  united  by  a  love  so  sincere  on  one  side  and  so 
well  simulated  on  the  other,  more  than  one  confi- 
dence had  been  exchanged  in  the  course  of  four 
months.  Notwithstanding  the  care  with  which 
Etienne  screened  himself,  more  than  one  word  had 
enlightened  Dinah  on  the  antecedents  of  this  spend- 
thrift whose  talent  had  been  so  cramped  by  poverty, 


282  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

so  perverted  by  bad  examples,  so  thwarted  by  diffi- 
culties superior  to  his  courage.  "  He  will  develop 
in  prosperity,"  she  had  said  to  herself.  And  she 
wished  to  give  him  happiness,  security  in  his  own 
household,  by  the  economy  and  the  spirit  of  order 
familiar  to  those  born  in  the  provinces.  Dinah  be- 
came a  housekeeper  as  she  had  become  a  poet,  by 
an  impulse  of  her  soul  toward  higher  things. 
"  His  happiness  shall  be  my  absolution." 
This  phrase,  which  the  magistrate  drew  out  from 
Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  explained  the  actual  state 
of  affairs.  The  publicity  which  fitienne  had  given 
his  triumph  on  the  night  of  the  first  representation 
had  sufficiently  laid  bare  the  journalist's  intentions 
to  the  magistrate's  eyes.  For  Etienne,  Madame  de 
la  Baudraye  was,  to  adopt  the  English  expression,  a 
sufficiently  fine  feather  in  his  cap.  Far  from  appre- 
ciating the  charms  of  a  mysterious  and  timid  love,  of 
concealing  so  great  a  happiness  from  all  the  world, 
he  experienced  all  a  parvenu's  enjoyment  in  adorn- 
ing himself  with  the  first  comme  ilfant  woman  who 
had  honored  him  with  her  love.  Nevertheless,  the 
magistrate  was  for  some  time  deceived  by  the  atten- 
tions which  every  man  displays  toward  a  woman  in 
the  situation  in  which  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  now 
found  herself  and  which  Lousteau  rendered  charming 
by  the  wheedlings  peculiar  to  men  whose  manners  are 
naturally  agreeable.  There  are  men,  in  fact,  who 
are  born  with  a  touch  of  the  monkey  in  them,  to 
whom  the  imitations  of  the  most  charming  evidences 
of  feeling  come   so  naturally,  that  the   actor  is  no 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  283 

longer  to  be  discerned  in  them  ;  and  the  natural  dis- 
position of  the  Sancerrois  had  been  very  much  de- 
veloped by  the  scenes  in  which  he  had  lived  up  to 
the  present  time.  Between  the  month  of  April 
and  the  month  of  July,  the  period  at  which  Dinah 
was  to  be  brought  to  bed,  she  discovered  why  Lous- 
teau  had  not  overcome  poverty, — he  was  indolent 
and  lacking  in  will-power.  It  is  true  that  the  brain 
obeys  only  its  own  laws,  it  recognizes  neither  the 
necessities  of  life  nor  the  commands  of  honor ;  a 
great  work  is  not  produced  because  a  wife  is  dying, 
or  in  order  to  pay  dishonoring  debts,  or  to  bring  up 
children  ;  nevertheless,  there  are  no  great  talents 
without  a  strong  will.  These  twin  forces  are 
indispensable  to  the  construction  of  the  immense 
edifice  of  glory.  The  truly  superior  men  maintain 
their  brains  in  such  condition  as  to  be  capable  of  pro- 
duction, just  as  formerly  a  paladin  kept  his  arms 
always  polished.  They  overcome  indolence,  they 
deny  themselves  enervating  pleasures,  or  yield  to 
them  only  in  proportion  to  the  limit  allowed  by  the 
extent  of  their  faculties.  In  this  manner  are  to  be 
explained  Scribe,  Rossini,  Walter  Scott,  Cuvier,  Vol- 
taire, Newton,  Buffon,  Bayle,  Bossuet,  Leibnitz, 
Lope  de  Vega,  Calderon,  Boccaccio,  Aretino,  Aristo- 
tle, in  short,  all  those  who  entertain,  instruct  or  lead 
their  epoch.  The  will  can  and  should  be  a  source  of 
pride  much  more  than  talent.  If  talent  has  its  germ 
in  a  cultivated  predisposition,  will  is  a  conquest 
made  at  every  moment  over  the  instincts,  over  the 
inclinations    conquered,   trodden    under  foot,   over 


284  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

whims  and  obstacles  vanquished,  over  difficulties  of 
every  sort  heroically  overcome.  His  indulgence  in 
cigars  contributed  to  Lousteau's  laziness.  If  tobac- 
co lulls  vexation,  it  infallibly  dulls  energy.  All  that 
the  cigar  extinguished  in  the  physical,  the  spirit  of 
criticism  annihilated  in  the  mental  condition  of  this 
man,  so  disposed  to  pleasure.  Criticism  is  as  fatal 
for  the  critic  as  the  for  and  against  is  for  the  lawyer. 
In  this  avocation,  the  mind  contradicts  itself,  the 
intelligence  loses  its  rectilinear  lucidity.  The  writer 
exists  only  by  means  of  opinions  formed.  Thus 
there  should  be  distinguished  two  criticisms,  in  the 
same  way  as  in  painting  we  recognize  the  art  and 
the  technique.  To  criticise  in  the  manner  of  the 
greater  number  of"  the  actual  feuilletonists,  that  is 
merely  to  express  such  and  such  judgments  in  a 
more  or  less  clever  fashion,  just  as  an  advocate 
pleads  at  the  Palais  the  most  contradictory  causes. 
The  faiseurs  always  find  a  theme  to  develop  in  the 
work  which  they  are  analyzing.  Done  in  this  man- 
ner, this  trade  is  suited  to  the  idle  souls,  to  those 
deprived  of  the  sublime  faculty  of  imagining,  or  who, 
possessing  it,  have  not  the  courage  to  cultivate  it. 
Every  theatrical  piece,  every  book,  becomes  under 
their  pens  a  subject  which  costs  their  imagination  no 
effort,  and  on  which  the  report  is  written,  jestingly 
or  seriously,  according  to  the  whim  of  the  passions 
of  the  moment.  As  for  the  judgment,  whatever  it 
may  be,  it  is  always  justifiable  for  the  French  intelli- 
gence, which  lends  itself  admirably  to  the  for  and 
against.     Conscience   is   so   little   consulted,  these 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  285 

bravoes  use  their  judgment  so  little,  that  they  will 
praise  in  the  foyer  of  a  theatre  the  work  which  they 
rend  in  their  article.  They  have  been  seen  passing, 
if  needs  be,  from  one  journal  to  another  without 
taking  the  trouble  to  protest  that  the  opinions  of 
the  newfeuilleton  are  diametrically  opposed  to  those 
of  the  old  one.  Besides,  Madame  de  la  Baudraye 
smiled  on  seeing  Lousteau  produce  a  legitimist  article 
and  a  dynastic  article  on  the  same  event.  She  ap- 
plauded this  maxim  pronounced  by  him  :  "  We  are 
the  attorneys  of  public  opinion! — "  The  other 
style  of  criticism  is  a  complete  science,  it  exacts  a 
complete  comprehension  of  the  works,  a  clear  view 
of  the  tendencies  of  an  epoch,  the  adoption  of  a  sys- 
tem, a  faith  in  certain  principles  ;  that  is  to  say,  a 
jurisprudence,  a  report,  a  decree.  This  critic  then 
becomes  the  magistrate  of  ideas,  the  censor  of  his 
time,  he  exercises  a  priesthood  ;  whilst  the  other  is 
an  acrobat  who  performs  tricks  to  earn  his  living, 
so  long  as  he  has  legs.  Between  Claude  Vignon 
and  Lousteau  there  was  the  distance  which  separates 
a  trade  from  art.  Dinah,  whose  mind  speedily  lost 
its  rustiness  and  whose  intelligence  had  breadth,  had 
soon  arrived  at  a  literary  judgment  of  her  idol.  She 
saw  Lousteau  working  at  the  last  moment,  under  the 
most  dishonoring  exactions,  and  scumbling  as  the 
painters  say  of  a  work  which  lacks  careful  defini- 
tion ;  but  she  justified  him  by  saying  to  herself : 
"  He  is  a  poet !  "  so  much  need  had  she  of  justifying 
herself  in  her  own  eyes.  In  divining  this  secret  of 
the  literary  life  of  so  many,  she  divined  that  Lous- 


286  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

teau's  pen  would  never  be  an  unfailing  resource. 
Love  caused  her  then  to  undertake  something  to 
which  she  would  never  have  descended  on  her  own 
account.  Through  her  mother  she  opened  negotia- 
tions with  her  husband  in  order  to  obtain  an  allow- 
ance from  him,  but  unknown  to  Lousteau,  whose 
delicacy,  as  she  thought,  must  be  considered.  Some 
days  before  the  end  of  July,  Dinah  crumpled  up  in 
anger  the  letter  in  which  her  mother  brought  to  her 
the  definite  reply  of  the  little  La  Baudraye  : 

"  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  has  no  need  of  an  allowance  in 
Paris  when  she  has  the  most  beautiful  life  in  the  world  at  her 
Chateau  d'Anzy, — let  her  return  to  it." 

Lousteau  picked  up  the  letter  and  read  it. 

"  I  will  avenge  you,"  he  said  to  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  in  that  sinister  tone  which  pleases  women 
so  much  when  their  antipathies  are  encouraged. 

Five  days  later,  Bianchon  and  Duriau,  the  cele- 
brated accoucheur,  were  established  in  Lousteau's 
house,  for  he,  since  the  reply  of  the  little  La  Bau- 
draye, had  paraded  his  happiness  and  made  a  display 
over  the  accouchement  of  Dinah.  Monsieur  de 
Clagny  and  Madame  Piedefer,  summoned  in  haste, 
were  the  godfather  and  godmother  of  the  expected 
infant,  for  the  prudent  magistrate  feared  to  see  some 
grave  error  committed  by  Lousteau.  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  gave  birth  to  a  boy  who  might  have  made 
envious  queens  desirous  of  an  heir-presumptive. 
Bianchon,  accompanied  by  Monsieur  de  Clagny, 
went  to  have  this  child  recorded   at  the   bureau  of 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  287 

births  as  the  son  of  Monsieur  and  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye,  unknown  to  Etienne,  who,  on  his  side, 
hastened  to  the  printer's  and  had  this  notice  struck 
off  : 

Madame  la  Baronne  de  la  Baudraye  has  been  happily  delivered  of 
a  son. 

Monsieur  Etienne  Lousteau  has  the  pleasure  of  notifying  you 
thereof. 

The  mother  and  the  child  are  doing  well. 

A  first  delivery  of  sixty  notices  had  been  made  for 
Lousteau,  when  Monsieur  de  Clagny,  who  had 
called  to  inquire  after  the  accouchee,  happened  to 
see  the  list  of  persons  in  Sancerre  to  whom  Lousteau 
proposed  to  send  this  remarkable  notification,  written 
under  the  sixty  Parisians  who  were  to  receive  them. 
The  magistrate  seized  the  list  and  the  remainder  of 
the  notices ;  he  showed  them  at  first  to  Madame 
Piedefer,  telling  her  not  to  permit  Lousteau  to 
recommence  this  infamous  jest,  and  he  threw  himself 
into  a  cabriolet.  The  devoted  magistrate  ordered 
from  the  same  printer  another  notice,  in  these 
terms : 

Madame  la  Baronne  de  la  Baudraye  has  been  happily  delivered  of 
a  son. 

Monsieur  le  Baron  de  la  Baudrave  has  the  honor  of  notifying  you 
thereof. 

The  mother  and  the  child  are  doing  well. 

After  having  caused  to  be  destroyed  the  proofs, 
the  setting-up,  everything  that  could  bear  witness 
to  the  existence  of  this  first  notice,  Monsieur  de 
Clagny  started  out  to  intercept  those  already  sent 


288  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

out ;  many  of  them  he  changed  in  the  porters' 
lodges,  he  obtained  the  restoration  of  some  thirty  ; 
finally,  after  three  days  of  running  about,  there  re- 
mained in  existence  only  one  of  these  notices,  that 
of  Nathan.  The  magistrate  had  returned  five  times 
to  the  house  of  this  celebrated  man  without  being 
able  to  meet  him.  When,  after  having  asked  for  an 
appointment,  Monsieur  de  Clagny  was  finally  re- 
ceived, the  anecdote  of  the  notification  had  spread 
all  over  Paris.  Some  saw  in  it  one  of  those  clever 
calumnies,  a  species  of  injury  to  which  are  subject 
all  reputations,  even  the  ephemeral  ones.  Others 
affirmed  that  they  had  read  the  notice,  and  had  re- 
stored it  to  a  friend  of  the  La  Baudraye  family. 
Very  many  railed  loudly  against  the  immorality 
of  journalists,  so  that  this  last  existing  notice  had 
become  quite  a  curiosity.  Florine,  with  whom 
Nathan  was  living,  had  shown  it  to  him  post-marked, 
delivered  by  the  post,  and  bearing  the  address 
written  by  Etienne.  Therefore  when  the  magis- 
trate spoke  of  this  notification,  Nathan  began  to 
smile. 

"  Give  back  to  you  this  monument  of  stupidity 
and  of  childishness  ?  "  he  exclaimed.  "  This  auto- 
graph is  one  of  those  arms  of  which  an  athlete  in  the 
arena  should  never  deprive  himself.  This  note 
demonstrates  that  Lousteau  is  wanting  in  heart,  in 
good  taste,  in  dignity,  that  he  is  acquainted  neither 
with  the  world  nor  with  public  morality,  that  he  in- 
sults himself  when  he  knows  of  no  one  else  to  in- 
sult—     It  is  only  the  son  of  a  bourgeois  come  from 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  289 

Sancerre  to  be  a  poet  and  who  makes  of  himself  the 
bravo  of  the  first  review  that  comes  along  who  could 
send  out  such  a  notification  !  You  must  admit  it, — 
this,  monsieur,  is  a  document  required  for  the  ar- 
chives of  our  epoch.  To-day,  Lousteau  fawns  upon 
me ;  to-morrow,  he  may  demand  my  head —  Ah  ! 
forgive  this  jest,  I  did  not  remember  that  you  are 
a  deputy  procureur.  I  have  entertained  in  my  heart 
a  passion  for  a  great  lady,  and  one  as  much  superior 
to  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  as  your  delicacy,  on  your 
side,  monsieur,  is  above  the  boyish  folly  of  Lous- 
teau ;  but  I  would  die  before  uttering  her  name — 
A  few  months  of  her  gentleness  and  her  graceful 
ways  cost  me  a  hundred  thousand  francs  and  my 
future  ;  but  I  do  not  think  that  I  paid  too  dearly  for 
them  ! —  And  I  have  never  pitied  myself  ! —  That 
the  women  should  betray  the  secret  of  their  passion, 
that  is  their  last  offering  to  love  ;  but  that  we  should 
do  so — it  requires  nothing  less  than  a  Lousteau  for 
that !  No,  not  for  a  thousand  ecus  would  I  give  up 
this  paper." 

"  Monsieur,"  said  the  magistrate  finally,  after  an 
oratorical  contest  of  a  half-hour's  duration,  "  I  have 
interviewed  on  this  subject  fifteen  or  sixteen  men  of 
letters,  and  you  are  the  only  one  inaccessible  to 
sentiments  of  honor ! —  It  is  not  a  question  here 
of  Etienne  Lousteau,  but  of  a  woman  and  a  child 
who  are  both  in  ignorance  of  the  wrong  that  has 
been  done  them,  to  their  fortune,  to  their  future, 
to  their   honor.      Who   knows,    monsieur,   if  you 

may  not  some  day  be  obliged  to  ask  of  justice  some 
16 


290  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

favor  for  a  friend,  for  some  one  whose  honor  is 
more  to  you  than  your  own  ?  Justice  may  then 
remember  that  you  have  been  pitiless —  A  man 
such  as  you,  can  he  hesitate  ?  "  said  the  magis- 
trate. 

"  1  wished  to  make  you  conscious  of  the  full  value 
of  my  sacrifice,"  Nathan  replied,  delivering  the  note 
as  he  reflected  upon  the  magistrate's  position  and  in 
accepting  this  species  of  bargain. 

When  the  folly  of  the  journalist  had  been  re- 
paired, Monsieur  de  Clagny  came  to  deliver  him  a 
strong  rebuke  in  the  presence  of  Madame  Piedefer ; 
but  he  found  Lousteau  very  much  irritated  at  these 
proceedings. 

"That  which  I  did,  monsieur,"  replied  Etienne, 
"  was  done  intentionally.  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye 
has  sixty  thousand  francs  of  income,  and  refuses  an 
allowance  to  his  wife  ;  I  wished  to  make  him  feel 
that  I  was  the  master  of  this  child." 

"  Eh  !  monsieur,  I  suspected  you,"  replied  the 
magistrate.  "  Therefore  I  took  pains  to  have  my- 
self made  god-father  of  the  little  Polydore,  he  is  in- 
scribed on  the  civil  registers  as  son  of  the  Baron  and 
the  Baroness  de  la  Baudraye,  and,  if  you  have  the 
bowels  of  a  father,  you  should  be  happy  to  know  that 
the  infant  is  the  heir  to  one  of  the  finest  majorats  in 
France." 

"Well,  monsieur,  must  the  mother  die  of  hun- 
ger ?  " 

"Be  easy,  monsieur,"  said  the  magistrate  bit- 
terly, having  drawn  from  Lousteau's  heart  the  ex- 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  291 

pression  of  the  sentiment  of  which  the  proof  had 
been  so  long  waited  for,  "  I  will  take  charge  of  this 
negotiation  with  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye." 

And  Monsieur  de  Clagny  departed  with  death  in 
his  heart.  Dinah,  his  idol,  was  loved  from  inter- 
ested motives  !  would  not  her  eyes  be  opened  too 
late  ? 

"  Poor  woman  !  "  said  the  magistrate  to  himself 
as  he  went  away. 

Let  us  do  him  this  justice,  for  to  whom  should  it 
be  done  if  not  to  a  deputy-procureur  ?  he  loved 
Dinah  too  sincerely  to  see  in  the  abasement  of  this 
woman  a  means  of  triumphing  by  it  some  day,  he 
was  all  compassion,  all  devotion, — he  loved  her. 

The  cares  required  for  the  nursing  of  the  infant, 
the  infant's  cries,  the  rest  necessary  for  the  mother 
during  the  first  days,  the  presence  of  Madame  Pie- 
defer,  all  conspired  so  effectively  against  the  literary 
labors,  that  Lousteau  installed  himself  in  the  three 
chambers  rented  on  the  first  floor  by  the  devout  old 
lady.  The  journalist,  obliged  to  go  to  the  first  rep- 
resentations without  Dinah,  and  separated  from  her 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  time,  found  I  know  not 
what  attraction  in  the  exercise  of  his  liberty. 
More  than  once  he  allowed  himself  to  be  taken  by 
the  arm  and  led  off  to  some  joyous  party.  More 
than  once  he  found  himself  again  in  the  midst  of 
Bohemia  in  the  house  of  some  friend's  lorette.  He 
met  again  women  in  brilliant  youthfulness,  splendid- 
ly apparelled,  and  to  whom  economy  would  have  ap- 
peared like  a  negation  of  their  youth  and  their  power. 


292  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

Dinah,  notwithstanding  the  marvellous  beauty  which 
she  displayed  at  the  period  of  her  third  month  of  nurs- 
ing, could  not  sustain  the  comparison  with  these 
flowers  so  soon  faded,  but  so  beautiful  during  the  mo- 
ments in  which  they  lived  with  their  roots  in  opulence. 
Nevertheless,  the  domestic  life  had  great  attractions 
for  £tienne.  In  the  space  of  three  months,  the 
mother  and  the  daughter,  aided  by  the  cook  brought 
from  Sancerre  and  by  the  little  Pamela,  gave  an  en- 
tirely new  aspect  to  the  apartment.  The  journalist 
there  found  his  dejeuner,  his  dinner  served  with  a 
sort  of  luxury.  Dinah, handsome  and  well  dressed, was 
careful  to  anticipate  the  wants  of  her  dear  Etienne, 
who  felt  himself  indeed  the  head  of  the  house,  in 
which  everything,  even  the  child,  was  subordinated, 
so  to  speak,  to  his  egoism.  The  tenderness  of  Dinah 
displayed  itself  in  the  smallest  things,  it  was  then 
impossible  for  Lousteau  not  to  continue  the  charm- 
ing deceptions  of  his  feigned  passion.  Dinah,  how- 
ever, foresaw,  in  the  exterior  life  into  which  Lous- 
teau allowed  himself  to  be  drawn,  a  cause  of  ruin  for 
her  love  and  for  the  household.  After  ten  months 
of  nursing  she  weaned  her  son,  restored  her  mother 
to  the  apartment  £tienne  had  been  occupying,  and 
re-established  that  intimacy  which  binds  indissolubly 
a  man  to  a  woman,  when  a  woman  is  loving  and 
charming.  One  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the 
novel  by  Benjamin  Constant,  and  one  of  the  expla- 
nations of  the  abandonment  of  Ellenore,  is  this 
default  of  daily,  or  nightly,  if  you  prefer,  intimacy 
between  her  and  Adolphe.     Each  of  the  two  lovers 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  293 

has  a  separate  lodging,  both  have  obeyed  the 
worldly  conventionalities,  they  have  preserved  ap- 
pearances. Ellenore,  left  alone  at  regular  periods, 
is  obliged  to  make  the  greatest  demonstrations  of 
tenderness  to  drive  away  the  thoughts  of  liberty 
which  assail  Adolphe  when  outside.  The  per- 
petual exchange  of  looks  and  of  thoughts  in  the 
life  in  common  gives  such  arms  to  women  that, 
in  order  to  abandon  them,  a  man  must  oppose  much 
better  reasons  than  they  will  ever  furnish  so  long  as 
they  love.  This  was  an  entirely  new  period  both 
for  Etienne  and  fcr  Dinah.  She  wished  to  be  neces- 
sary to  him,  she  wished  to  render  energy  to  this 
man  whose  weakness  smiled  upon  her,  she  saw 
security  in  so  doing, — she  found  him  subjects,  she 
sketched  the  designs  on  his  canvas ;  at  need,  she 
wrote  for  him  entire  chapters  ;  she  rejuvenated  the 
veins  of  this  talent  in  its  last  agonies  by  fresh  blood, 
she  gave  him  his  ideas  and  his  opinions.  In  the  end, 
she  produced  two  books  which  had  a  success.  More 
than  once  she  saved  the  self-love  of  Etienne,  in 
despair  at  finding  himself  without  ideas,  by  dictating 
to  him,  by  correcting  or  finishing  his  feuilletons. 
The  secret  of  this  collaboration  was  guarded  in- 
violably,— Madame  Piedefer  knew  nothing  of  it. 
This  mental  galvanism  was  recompensed  by  a  sur- 
plus of  receipts  which  permitted  the  household  to 
live  comfortably  until  the  end  of  the  year  1838. 
Lousteau  became  accustomed  to  seeing  his  task  ac- 
complished by  Dinah,  and  he  paid  her,  as  the  com- 
mon people  say  in  their  energetic  language,  in  111011- 


294  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

key  money  *  These  outlays  of  devotion  become  a 
treasure  to  which  the  generous  souls  attach  them- 
selves, and,  the  more  she  gave,  the  more  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye  loved  Lousteau, — thus  there  very 
soon  came  a  moment  in  which  he  cost  Dinah  too  much 
for  her  ever  to  be  able  to  renounce  him.  But  she  be- 
came pregnant  a  second  time.  The  year  was  ter- 
rible to  live  through.  Notwithstanding  the  cares 
of  the  two  women,  Lousteau  contracted  debts  ;  he 
exceeded  his  strength  in  the  effort  to  pay  them  by 
his  labor  during  Dinah's  lying-in,  and  she  thought 
him  heroic,  so  well  she  knew  him  !  After  this 
effort,  terrified  at  having  two  women,  two  children, 
two  domestics,  he  considered  himself  as  incapable 
of  combating  with  "his  pen  to  support  a  family, 
when  alone  he  had  not  been  able  to  make  a  living. 
He  permitted,  then,  things  to  go  as  they  would. 
This  unfeeling  schemer  over-acted  the  part  of  a 
lover  at  home  so  as  to  have  more  liberty  outside. 
The  proud  Dinah  sustained  the  burden  of  this  exist- 
ence alone.  This  thought :  "He  loves  me  !  "  gave 
her  supernatural  strength.  She  worked  as  worked 
only  the  most  vigorous  talents  of  that  epoch.  At  the 
risk  of  losing  her  freshness  and  her  health,  Didine 
was  for  Lousteau  what  Mademoiselle  Delachaux 
was  for  Gardane  in  Diderot's  magnificent  true  tale. 
But,  in  sacrificing  herself,  she  committed  the  sub- 
lime fault  of  sacrificing  her  toilet.  She  had  all  her 
dresses  re-dyed,  she  no  longer  wore  anything  but 

*  'Payer  en  monnaie  de  singe — literally  to  pay  in  monkey-money, 
means  to  laugh  at  a  person  instead  of  paying  him. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  295 

black. — She  smelt  of  black,  as  Malaga  said,  with 
much  derision  of  Lousteau.  Toward  the  end  of 
the  year  1839,  Etienne,  following  the  example  of 
Louis  XV.,  had  arrived  by  successive  and  gradual 
capitulations  of  conscience  at  establishing  a  distinc- 
tion between  his  own  purse  and  that  of  the  house- 
hold, as  Louis  XV.  distinguished  between  his  secret 
treasury  and  his  privy  purse.  He  deceived  Dinah 
as  to  the  amount  of  the  receipts.  When  she  per- 
ceived these  deficiencies,  Madame  de  la  Baudraye 
suffered  atrociously  from  jealousy.  She  wished  to 
lead  boldly  the  life  of  the  world  and  the  literary  life 
together,  she  accompanied  the  journalist  to  all  the 
first  representations,  and  detected  in  him  movements 
of  offended  self-love,  for  the  black  of  her  toilet  came 
off  on  him,  darkened  his  countenance  and  rendered 
him  sometimes  brutal.  Playing,  in  his  own  house- 
hold, the  woman's  part,  he  assumed  its  unreason- 
able exactions, — he  reproached  Dinah  with  the 
want  of  freshness  in  her  appearance,  while  all  the 
time  profiting  by  this  sacrifice  which  costs  so  much 
to  a  mistress ;  exactly  like  a  woman  who,  after 
having  ordered  you  to  pass  through  a  sewer  in  order 
to  save  her  honor,  says  to  you  when  you  come  out : 
"  I  do  not  like  mud  !  "  Dinah  was  then  obliged  to 
gather  up  the  reins,  which  till  then  had  been  lying 
loose,  of  that  authority  which  all  witty  and  intel- 
ligent women  exercise  over  people  without  strength 
of  will.  But  in  doing  this  she  lost  much  of  her 
mental  brilliancy.  The  suspicions  which  she  al- 
lowed to   be   perceived,  draw   down   upon  women 


296  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

quarrels  in  which  the  want  of  respect  begins,  be- 
cause they  descend  themselves  from  the  heights  on 
which  they  originally  stationed  themselves.  Then 
she  made  concessions.  Thus  Lousteau  was  allowed 
to  receive  several  of  his  friends,  Nathan,  Bixiou, 
Blondet,  Finot,  whose  manners,  whose  discourse, 
whose  conduct  were  depraving.  They  endeavored 
to  persuade  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  that  her 
principles,  her  repugnances,  were  a  remnant  of 
provincial  prudery.  Finally,  they  preached  to  her 
the  code  of  feminine  superiority.  Presently  her 
jealousy  furnished  arms  against  herself.  At  the 
carnival  of  1840,  she  disguised  herself,  went  to  the 
Opera  ball,  to  some  suppers  where  there  were 
lorettes,  in  order  to< follow  Etienne  in  all  his  amuse- 
ments. On  the  day  of  the  Mi-careme,  or  rather  on 
the  next  day,  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  Dinah 
in  disguise  reached  her  apartment,  returning  from 
the  ball  in  order  to  go  to  bed.  She  had  been  spy- 
ing on  Lousteau,  who,  thinking  her  ill,  had  disposed 
of  his  mi-careme  in  favor  of  Fanny  Beaupre.  The 
journalist,  warned  by  a  friend,  had  behaved  himself 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  deceive  the  poor  woman, 
who  asked  for  nothing  better  than  to  be  deceived. 
As  she  descended  from  her  hackney  coach,  Dinah 
encountered  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye,  to  whom  the 
porter  pointed  her  out.  The  little  old  man  said 
coldly  to  his  wife,  taking  her  by  the  arm  : 

"Is  it  you,  madame  ?  " 

This  apparition  of  the  conjugal  authority,  before 
which  she  felt  so  small,  and  especially  this  phrase, 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  297 

almost  froze  the  heart  of  this  poor  creature,  sur- 
prised in  her  waterman's  costume.  In  order  to 
better  escape  Etienne's  notice,  Dinah  had  taken  a 
disguise  under  which  he  would  not  be  likely  to  look 
for  her.  She  took  advantage  of  the  fact  that  she 
was  still  masked,  to  flee  without  replying,  went  to 
change  her  costume  and  then  ascended  to  her 
mother's  apartment,  where  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye 
was  waiting  for  her.  Notwithstanding  her  dignified 
air,  she  blushed  in  the  presence  of  the  little  old  man. 

"What  do  you  wish  with  me,  monsieur  ?"  she 
asked.     "  Are  we  not  separated  for  ever  ?  " 

"  In  fact,  yes,"  replied  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  ; 
"but  legally,  no—" 

Madame  Piedefer  was  making  signs  to  her 
daughter,  which  Dinah  finally  perceived  and  com- 
prehended. 

"  There  is  nothing  but  your  own  interests  that 
could  bring  you  here,"  she  said  bitterly. 

"  Our  interests,"  replied  the  little  man  coldly, 
"for  we  have  children —  Your  uncle,  Silas  Piede- 
fer, has  died  in  New  York,  where,  after  having 
made  and  lost  several  fortunes  in  various  countries, 
he  has  left  something  like  seven  or  eight  hundred 
thousand  francs,  it  is  said  twelve  hundred  thousand 
francs  ;  but  it  is  a  question  of  realizing  on  merchan- 
dise—  I  am  the  head  of  the  community,  I  exercise 
your  rights." 

"  Oh  !  "  exclaimed  Dinah,  "  in  everything  relat- 
ing to  business  affairs  I  have  confidence  only  in 
Monsieur  de  Clagny  ;  he  knows  the  law,  you  can 


298  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

come  to  an  understanding  with  him  ;  whatever  he 
does  will  be  well  done." 

"  I  have  no  need  of  Monsieur  de  Clagny,"  said 
Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye,  "to  withdraw  from  you 
my  children." 

"Your  children!"  cried  Dinah,  "your  children 
to  whom  you  have  never  sent  a  farthing !  your 
children!—" 

She  added  only  a  great  burst  of  laughter,  but  the 
impassibility  of  the  little  La  Baudraye  threw  ice 
upon  this  explosion. 

-  "  Madame  your  mother  has  shown  them  to  me, 
they  are  charming,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  separated 
from  them,  and  I  will  take  them  away  to  our 
Chateau  d'Anzy,"  "said  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye, 
"  if  it  were  only  to  save  them  from  the  sight  of  their 
mother  disguised  as  are  disguised  the — " 

"  Enough  !  "  said  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  imperi- 
ously. "  What  did  you  wish  with  me  in  coming 
here  ?  " 

"  A  power-of-attorney  to  receive  the  inheritance 
of  our  uncle  Silas — " 

Dinah  took  a  pen,  wrote  two  lines  to  Monsieur  de 
Clagny  and  told  her  husband  to  return  in  the  even- 
ing. At  five  o'clock  the  avocat-general,  for  Mon- 
sieur de  Clagny  had  received  advancement,  en- 
lightened Madame  de  la  Baudraye  on  her  position  ; 
but  he  took  upon  himself  the  charge  of  regulating 
everything  by  making  a  compromise  with  the  little 
old  man,  who  had  been  brought  thither  by  avarice 
only.     Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye,  to  whom  his  wife's 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  299 

power  of  attorney  was  indispensable  to  enable  him 
to  act  in  her  name,  purchased  it  by  the  following 
concessions, — he  engaged,  in  the  first  place,  to 
make  to  his  wife  an  annual  allowance  of  ten  thou- 
sand francs,  so  long  as  it  pleased  her,  as  it  was  stated 
in  the  deed,  to  live  in  Paris  ;  but  when  the  children 
attained  the  age  of  six  years  they  were  to  be  deliv- 
ered to  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye.  Finally,  the 
magistrate  obtained  a  preliminary  payment  of  a 
year's  allowance.  The  little  La  Baudraye  who  came 
to  say  adieu  gallantly  to  his  wife  and  his  children, 
appeared  in  a  little  white  rubber  overcoat.  He  was 
so  firm  on  his  legs  and  so  very  similar  to  the  La 
Baudraye  of  1836,  that  Dinah  despaired  of  ever  in- 
terring this  terrible  dwarf.  From  the  garden  in 
which  he  was  smoking  a  cigar,  the  journalist  saw 
♦Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  during  the  time  that  this 
insect  took  to  cross  the  court ;  but  this  was  enough 
for  Lousteau,  it  seemed  to  him  to  be  evident  that  the 
little  man  had  determined  to  destroy  all  the  hopes 
with  which  his  death  might  have  inspired  his  wife. 
This  scene,  brief  as  it  was,  changed  greatly  the 
secret  dispositions  of  the  journalist.  While  smoking 
a  second  cigar,  Etienne  reflected  seriously  upon  his 
position ;  his  connection  with  the  Baronne  de  la 
Baudraye  had,  up  to  the  present  time,  cost  him  just 
as  much  money  as  it  had  her.  To  make  use  of  a 
commercial  expression,  the  accounts  were  exactly 
balanced.  Having  regard  to  the  smallness  of  his  for- 
tune, to  the  difficulty  with  which  he  earned  money, 
Lousteau  considered  himself  as  morally  the  creditor. 


3<DO  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

Assuredly  the  hour  was  favorable  for  leaving  this 
woman.  Wearied  with  playing  for  almost  three 
years  a  comedy  which  would  never  become  with 
him  a  habit,  he  was  perpetually  disguising  his  ennui. 
This  spendthrift,  accustomed  to  no  dissimulation, 
imposed  upon  himself  in  the  domestic  circle  a  smile 
similar  to  that  of  the  debtor  before  the  creditor. 
This  obligation  became  from  day  to  day  more  bur- 
densome for  him.  Up  to  this  time  the  immense 
interest  which  the  future  promised  had  given  him 
strength  ;  but,  when  he  saw  the  little  La  Baudraye 
setting  out  as  lightly  for  the  United  States  as  if  it 
were  a  question  of  taking  the  steamboat  to  Rouen, 
he  no  longer  believed  in  the  future.  He  re-entered 
from  the  garden  into  the  elegant  salon  in  which 
Dinah  had  just  received  her  husband's  adieux. 

"  Etienne,"  said  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  "do 
you  know  what  my  lord  and  master  has  just  pro- 
posed to  me  ?  In  case  it  should  please  me  to  live  at 
Anzy  during  his  absence,  he  has  given  his  orders, 
and  he  hopes  that  the  good  advice  of  my  mother  will 
decide  me  to  return  thither  with  my  children — " 

"The  advice  is  excellent,"  replied  Lousteau 
dryly,  he  knowing  Dinah  well  enough  to  be  aware 
of  the  passionate  response  which  she  wished,  and 
for  which  she  supplicated,  moreover,  by  a  look. 

This  tone,  the  accent,  the  indifferent  glance,  all 
struck  so  keenly  this  woman  who  lived  only  by  her 
love,  that  she  allowed  to  flow  from  her  eyes  down 
her  cheeks  two  great  tears  without  replying,  and 
Lousteau  only  perceived  them  at  the  moment  when 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  301 

she  took  her  handkerchief  to  dry  these  two  pearls  of 
sorrow. 

"  What  is  it,  Didine  ?  "  he  said,  touched  to  the 
heart  by  this  sensitive  quickness. 

"  At  the  moment  when  I  was  applauding  myself 
for  having  secured  our  liberty  forever,"  she  said, 
" — at  the  cost  of  my  fortune! — by  selling — that 
which  a  mother  holds  the  most  precious — her  chil- 
dren ! — for  he  takes  them  from  me  when  they  are 
six  years  old — and,  in  order  to  see  them  it  will  be 
necessary  to  return  to  Sancerre  ! — a  torture  ! — Ah  ! 
Mon  Dieu  !  what  have  I  done  ? ' ' 

Lousteau  placed  himself  at  Dinah's  knees  and 
kissed  her  hands,  lavishing  upon  her  his  most  caress- 
ing wheedlings. 

"  You  do  not  understand  me,"  he  said.  "  I  sit  in 
judgment  on  myself,  and  I  am  not  worth  all  these 
sacrifices,  my  dear  angel.  I  am,  speaking  literally, 
a  very  second-rate  man.  The  day  on  which  I  can 
no  longer  make  a  parade  at  the  bottom  of  the  pages 
of  the  journals  with  my  feuilletons,  the  editors  of 
the  public  prints  will  abandon  me,  like  an  old  slipper 
thrown  away  in  the  corner  of  an  alley.  Think  of  it ! 
we  are  tight-rope  dancers,  we  have  no  pension  to  retire 
upon  !  There  would  be  found  too  many  talented 
people  to  pension,  if  the  State  should  enter  upon 
that  species  of  benevolence  !  I  am  forty-two  years 
old,  I  have  become  as  sluggish  as  a  marmot.  I  am 
conscious  of  it :  my  love  " — he  kissed  her  hand  very 
tenderly — "can  only  become  an  injury  to  you.  I 
lived,  as  you  know,  with  Florine  when  I  was  but 


302  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

twenty-two  ;  but  that  which  is  excusable  at  an  early 
age,  that  which  then  seems  pretty,  charming,  is  dis- 
honoring at  forty.  Up  to  this  time  we  have  shared 
between  us  the  burden  of  our  existence,  it  has  not 
been  beautiful  for  the  last  eighteen  months.  Through 
devotion  to  me,  you  go  about  dressed  all  in  black, 
which  does  not  do  me  honor — " 

Dinah  made  one  of  these  magnificent  movements 
of  the  shoulders  which  are  worth  all  the  discourses 
in  the  world — 

"  Yes,"  said  Etienne,  continuing,  "  you  sacrifice 
everything  to  my  convenience,  even  your  beauty. 
And  I,  my  heart  worn  out  by  struggles,  my  soul 
filled  with  evil  presentiments  for  my  future,  I  do  not 
recompense  your  soothing  love  by  an  equal  love. 
We  have  been  very  happy,  without  any  clouds,  for 
a  long  time — Well,  I  do  not  wish  to  see  so  beautiful 
a  poem  end  badly,  am  I  wrong  ? — " 

Madame  de  la  Baudraye  loved  Etienne  so  much 
that  this  wisdom,  worthy  of  Monsieur  de  Clagny, 
gave  her  pleasure,  and  dried  her  tears. 

"  He  loves  me  then  for  myself  alone  !  "  she  said 
to  herself,  looking  at  him  with  smiling  eyes. 

After  four  years  of  intimacy,  this  woman's  love 
had  ended  by  reuniting  all  the  various  shades  dis- 
covered by  our  spirit  of  analysis  and  which  modern 
society  has  created  ;  Beyle — Stendhal — one  of  the 
most  remarkable  men  of  this  period,  whose  recent 
loss  still  affects  the  world  of  letters,  has  been  the 
first  to  characterize  them  perfectly.  Lousteau  pro- 
duced  in  Dinah  that  lively  commotion,  explicable 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  303 

by  magnetism,  which  disarranges  all  the  forces  of 
the  soul  and  the  body,  which  destroys  every  prin- 
ciple of  resistance  in  women.  A  look  from  Lous- 
teau,  his  hand  placed  upon  hers,  rendered  Dinah 
very  obedient.  A  gentle  word,  a  smile  from  this 
man,  made  the  soul  of  this  poor  woman  to  flower, 
he  moved  or  saddened  her  by  the  caress  or  by  the 
coldness  in  his  eyes  ;  when  he  gave  her  his  arm  in 
walking  at  her  pace,  in  the  street  or  on  the  boule- 
vard, she  was  so  absorbed  in  him  that  she  lost  the 
consciousness  of  her  own  identity.  Charmed  by 
the  wit,  magnetized  by  the  manners  of  this  spend- 
thrift, she  saw  in  his  vices  only  slight  defects.  She 
loved  the  puffs  of  cigar  smoke  which  the  wind 
brought  to  her  in  her  chamber  from  the  garden, 
far  from  making  any  grimaces  over  them,  she  went 
to  inhale  them,  she  concealed  herself  that  she 
might  enjoy  them.  She  hated  the  publishers  or 
the  director  of  the  journal  who  refused  Lousteau 
money,  objecting  to  the  enormity  of  the  advances 
already  made.  She  went  so  far  as  to  understand 
that  this  bohemian  might  write  a  novel  the  price  of 
which  was  to  be  received,  instead  of  giving  it  in 
return  for  a  payment  long  since  made.  Such  is 
doubtless  the  veritable  love,  it  comprehends  all  the 
manners  of  loving, — love  of  the  heart,  love  of  the 
head,  love-passion,  love-caprice,  love-taste,  accord- 
ing to  the  definitions  of  Beyle.  Didine  loved  so 
well  that  at  certain  moments,  when  her  critical 
sense,  so  just,  so  continually  exercised  since  her 
coming  to  Paris,  enabled   her  to  see   clearly  into 


304  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

Lousteau's  soul,  passion  overcame  reason  and  sug- 
gested to  her  excuses. 

"And  I,"  she  replied  to  him,  "what  am  I  ?  a 
woman  who  has  put  herself  outside  of  the  world. 
When  I  fail  in  woman's  honor,  why  should  you  not 
sacrifice  to  me  a  little  of  man's  honor  ?  Are  we  not 
living  outside  of  the  social  conventionalities  ?  Why 
not  accept  from  me  that  which  Nathan  accepts  from 
Florine  ?  We  will  count  it  up  when  we  leave  each 
other,  and — you  know  ! — death  alone  shall  separate 
us.  Your  honor,  Etienne,  is  my  felicity  ;  as  mine 
is  my  constancy  and  your  happiness.  If  I  do  not 
render  you  happy,  everything  is  said.  If  I  give 
you  a  pain,  condemn  me.  Our  debts  are  paid,  we 
have  ten  thousand -francs  of  income,  and  we  shall 
readily  earn,  between  us,  eight  thousand  francs  a 
year. — /  will  do  a  theatre  piece!  With  fifteen  hun- 
dred francs  a  month,  shall  we  not  be  as  rich  as  the 
Rothschilds  ?  Be  easy.  Now  I  shall  have  deli- 
cious toilets,  I  will  give  you  every  day  pleasures  of 
vanity,  as  on  the  day  of  the  first  representation  of 
Nathan's—" 

"  And  your  mother,  who  goes  every  day  to  mass, 
who  wishes  to  bring  you  a  priest  and  to  cause  you 
to  renounce  your  mode  of  life  ?  " 

"Every  one  to  his  own  vice.  You  smoke,  she 
preaches  to  me,  poor  woman  !  but  she  takes  care  of 
the  children,  she  takes  them  out  to  walk,  she  is  of 
an  absolute  devotion,  she  idolizes  me  ;  would  you 
wish  to  prevent  her  from  weeping  ? — " 

"  What  will  be  said  of  me  ?  " 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  305 

"But  we  do  not  live  for  the  world!"  she  ex- 
claimed, raising  Etienne  and  making  him  take  a  seat 
beside  her.  "Moreover,  some  day,  we  shall  be 
married — we  have  in  our  favor  the  chances  of  the 
sea — " 

"1  did  not  think  of  that!"  cried  Lousteau  in- 
genuously, and  he  said  to  himself:  "  There  will  be 
plenty  of  time  to  break  off  when  the  little  La  Bau- 
draye  returns." 

From  this  day  Lousteau  lived  luxuriously  ;  Dinah 
was  able  to  rival,  on  the  nights  of  the  first  repre- 
sentations, the  best  dressed  women  in  Paris.  Cher- 
ished by  this  domestic  happiness,  Lousteau  fatuously 
assumed  with  his  friends  the  character  of  a  man 
worn-out,  wearied,  ruined  by  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye. 

"  Oh  !  how  I  should  love  the  friend  who  would 
deliver  me  of  Dinah  !  But  no  one  will  succeed  in 
doing  it,"  he  said,  "  she  loves  me  enough  to  throw 
herself  out  of  the  window  if  I  should  tell  her  to  do 
so." 

The  journalist  caused  himself  to  be  pitied,  he  took 
precautions  against  Dinah's  jealousy  whenever  he 
accepted  an  invitation.  Finally  he  committed  infi- 
delities without  shame.  When  Monsieur  de  Clagny, 
in  sincere  despair  at  seeing  Dinah  in  a  situation  so 
dishonoring,  when  she  might  have  been  so  rich,  so 
highly  placed,  and  at  the  moment  in  which  her 
early  ambitions  were  about  to  be  accomplished, 
came  to  her  to   say:   "You   are  deceived!"   she 

replied  : 
20 


306  THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

"I  know  it." 

The  magistrate  was  stupefied.  He  recovered  his 
speech  to  make  an  observation. 

"  Do  you  love  me  still  ?  "  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye  asked  him,  interrupting  him  at  the  first  word. 

"Enough  to  ruin  myself  for  you! — "  he  ex- 
claimed, rising  upon  his  feet. 

The  eyes  of  the  poor  man  became  like  torches, 
he  trembled  like  a  leaf,  he  felt  his  larynx  immova- 
ble, his  hair  stirred  at  its  roots,  he  believed  in  the 
happiness  of  being  taken  by  his  idol  as  an  avenger, 
and  this  makeshift  rendered  him  almost  crazy  with 
joy. 

"  At  what  are  you  surprised  then  ?  "  she  said  to 
him,  causing  him  to  resume  his  seat,  "  that  is  how  1 
love." 

The  magistrate  then  comprehended  this  argument 
ad  hominem!  And  he  had  tears  in  his  eyes,  he  who 
had  just  condemned  a  man  to  death  !  Lousteau's 
satiety,  that  horrible  denoumentof  concubinage,  had 
betrayed  itself  in  a  thousand  little  things  which  are 
like  grains  of  sand  thrown  against  the  windows  of 
the  magic  pavilion  in  which  one  dreams  when  one 
loves.  These  grains  of  sand  which  become  pebbles, 
Dinah  had  only  perceived  when  they  had  acquired 
the  size  of  stones.  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  had 
ended  by  thoroughly  judging  Lousteau. 

"  He  is,"  she  said  to  her  mother,  "  a  poet  with- 
out any  defence  against  unhappiness,  weak  through 
indolence  and  not  through  want  of  heart,  a  little  too 
yielding   to   voluptuousness  ;    in  short,  he  is  a  cat 


THE  MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  307 

that  you  cannot  hate.  What  would  become  of 
him  without  me  ?  I  prevented  his  marriage,  he  has 
no  longer  any  future.  His  talent  would  perish  in 
poverty." 

"  Oh  !  my  Dinah  !  "  Madame  Piedefer  had  cried, 
"  in  what  a  hell  are  you  living  ? —  What  is  the 
sentiment  that  will  give  you  the  strength  to  per- 
sist ?— " 

"  I  will  be  his  mother !  "  she  had  said. 

There  are  horrible  positions  in  which  we  take  no 
decision  until  the  moment  when  our  friends  perceive 
our  dishonor.  We  make  an  agreement  with  our- 
selves, so  long  as  we  escape  from  a  censor  who  will 
act  as  the  procureur  du  roi.  Monsieur  de  Clagny, 
awkward  as  a  patito,  had  just  become  Dinah's  ex- 
ecutioner ! 

"  I  shall  be,  to  preserve  my  love,  that  which 
Madame  de  Pompadour  was  to  maintain  her  power," 
she  said  to  herself  when  Monsieur  de  Clagny  had 
departed. 

This  speech  revealed  clearly  enough  that  her  love 
had  become  heavy  to  carry,  and  that  it  was  going  to 
be  a  labor  instead  of  being  a  pleasure. 

The  new  role  adopted  by  Dinah  was  terribly  pain- 
ful, but  Lousteau  did  not  make  it  easy  to  play. 
When  he  wished  to  go  out  after  dinner,  he  played 
little  scenes  of  ravishing  friendship,  he  said  to  Dinah 
words  that  were  truly  full  of  tenderness,  he  took  his 
companion  by  the  chain  and,  when  he  had  bruised 
her  in  all  the  old  wounds,  the  royal  ingrate  said  : 
"  Have  I  hurt  you  ?  "     These  lying  caresses,  these 


308  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

disguisements,  had  sometimes  consequences  that 
were  dishonoring  for  Dinah,  who  believed  in  the  re- 
turns of  tenderness.  Alas  !  the  mother  ceded  her 
place  to  Didine  with  a  shameful  facility.  She 
felt  herself  like  a  plaything  in  the  hands  of  this  man, 
and  she  ended  by  saying  :  "  Very  well,  I  wish  to  be 
his  plaything!"  finding  in  it  edged  pleasures,  the 
enjoyments  of  the  damned.  When  this  woman, 
whose  spirit  was  so  virile,  took  refuge  by  her 
thoughts  in  solitude,  she  felt  her  courage  fail.  She 
preferred  the  torments  foreseen,  inevitable,  of  this 
cruel  intimacy,  to  the  deprivation  of  enjoyments  so 
much  the  more  exquisite  that  they  were  born  in  the 
midst  of  remorses,  of  frightful  struggles  with  herself, 
of  noes  which  changed  into  ayes !  It  was  at  every 
moment  the  drop  of  brackish  water  found  in  the 
desert,  drunk  with  more  delight  than  the  traveller 
would  experience  in  tasting  the  choicest  wines  on 
the  tables  of  a  prince.  When  Dinah  said  to  herself 
at  midnight:  "Will  he  come  home?  Will  he  not 
come  home  ?  "  she  revived  only  at  the  familiar 
sound  of  Etienne's  boots,  she  recognized  his  pecul- 
iar knock.  Frequently  she  endeavored  to  make  use 
of  her  voluptuousness  as  of  a  curb,  she  thought  it 
worth  while  to  contest  with  her  rivals,  to  leave  them 
nothing  in  this  satiated  heart.  How  many  times  did 
she  play  the  tragedy  of  the  Last  Day  of  a  Condemned 
Man,  saying  to  herself  :  "  To-morrow,  we  will  leave 
each  other !  "  And  how  many  times  did  a  word,  a 
look,  a  caress  full  of  ingenuousness,  cause  her  to  fall 
back  again    into    love  !     This   was   often  terrible ! 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  309 

She  wandered  more  than  once  around  the  question 
of  suicide,  as  she  wandered  around  this  Parisian 
lawn  where  grew  the  pale  flowers  ! —  She  had  not, 
in  short,  exhausted  the  immense  treasure  of  devo- 
tion and  of  love  which  loving  women  carry  in  their 
hearts. 

The  romance  of  Adolphe  was  her  Bible,  she  studied 
it ;  for,  above  everything  else,  she  wished  not  to  be 
Ellenore.  She  avoided  tears,  kept  herself  from  all 
the  bitternesses  so  knowingly  described  by  the  critic 
to  whom  we  owe  the  analysis  of  this  poignant  work, 
and  whose  commentary  seemed  to  Dinah  to  be 
almost  superior  to  the  book.  Thus  she  often  re-read 
the  magnificent  article  by  the  sole  critic  which  the 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  had  had,  and  which  may  be 
found  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  edition  of  Adolphe. 

"  '  No,'  "  she  said  to  herself,  repeating  its  fatal 
words,  "  '  no,  I  will  not  give  to  my  prayers  the  form 
of  a  command,  I  will  not  fly  to  tears  as  to  a  ven- 
geance, I  will  not  judge  the  actions  which  I  formerly 
approved  unreservedly,  I  will  not  follow  his  steps 
with  a  curious  eye ;  if  he  escape,  on  his  return  he 
shall  not  find  an  imperious  mouth,  whose  kiss  shall 
be  an  order  admitting  of  no  response.  No !  my 
silence  shall  not  be  a  complaint,  and  my  speech  shall 
not  be  a  quarrel  ! — '  I  will  not  be  commonplace," 
she  said  to  herself,  placing  upon  the  table  the  little 
yellow  volume  which  had  already  procured  her  this 
speech  from  Lousteau :  "  What,  you  are  reading 
Adolphe!  "  "Shall  I  not  have  a  day  in  which  he 
will  recognize  my  value  and  in  which  he  will  say : 


310  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

'  Never  did  the  victim  cry  out,' — that  will  be  enough  ! 
Moreover,  the  others  will  only  have  moments,  and  I, 
I  shall  have  his  whole  life  !  " 

In  thinking  himself  authorized  by  his  wife's  con- 
duetto  punish  her  at  the  domestic  tribunal,  Monsieur 
de  la  Baudraye  had  the  delicacy  to  rob  her  in  order 
to  accomplish  his  great  enterprise  of  bringing  under 
cultivation  the  twelve  hundred  hectares  of  heath,  to 
which,  since  1836,  he  had  been  devoting  his  reve- 
nues, while  living  like  a  rat.  He  manipulated 
so  skilfully  the  property  left  by  Monsieur  Silas 
Piedefer  that  he  was  enabled  to  reduce  the  official 
liquidation  to  eight  hundred  thousand  francs,  while 
really  receiving  twelve  hundred  thousand.  He  did 
not  announce  his  return  to  his  wife  ;  but,  whilst  she 
was  suffering  indescribable  ills,  he  built  farms,  he 
dug  ditches,  he  planted  trees,  he  gave  himself  up  to 
heroic  clearings  of  land  which  caused  him  to  be  con- 
sidered as  one  of  the  most  distinguished  agricultur- 
ists of  Berri.  The  four  hundred  thousand  francs 
taken  from  his  wife  were  devoted  in  the  course  of 
three  years  to  this  operation,  and  the  property  of  Anzy 
should,  within  a  given  period,  bring  in  seventy-two 
thousand  francs  of  income,  clear  of  taxes.  As  to  the 
eight  hundred  thousand  francs,  he  placed  them  at 
four  and  a  half  per  cent.,  at  eighty  francs,  thanks  to 
the  financial  crisis  due  to  the  ministry  called  that  of 
the  1st  of  March.  In  thus  procuring  forty-eight 
thousand  francs  of  income  for  his  wife,  he  considered 
himself  as  quits  with  her.  Could  he  not  show  to 
her  the  twelve  hundred  thousand  francs  on  the  day 


THE   MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  311 

on  which  the  four  and  a  half  should  exceed  a  hundred 
francs  ?  His  importance  in  Sancerre  was  only  ex- 
celled by  the  richest  landed  proprietor  in  France, 
whom  he  rivalled.  He  saw  himself  possessed  of  a 
hundred  and  forty  thousand  francs  of  income,  of 
which  ninety  in  landed  funds  constituted  his  majorat. 
After  having  figured  up  that  apart  from  his  revenues 
he  paid  ten  thousand  francs  in  taxes,  three  thousand 
francs  in  expenses,  ten  thousand  francs  to  his  wife 
and  twelve  hundred  to  his  mother-in-law,  he  an- 
nounced in  the  midst  of  the  Literary  Society  : 

"  It  is  asserted  that  I  am  a  miser,  that  I  expend 
nothing,  my  expenses  amount  already  to  twenty-six 
thousand,  five  hundred  francs  a  year.  And  I  shall 
have  to  pay  for  the  education  of  my  two  children  ! 
This  will  doubtless  not  give  pleasure  to  Milaud  de 
Nevers,  but  the  second  house  of  La  Baudraye  will 
have  perhaps  as  fine  a  career  as  that  of  the  first.  I 
shall  probably  go  to  Paris  to  solicit  from  the  King  of 
the  French  the  title  of  count — Monsieur  Roy  is  a 
count, — it  will  doubtless  give  pleasure  to  my  wife, 
to  be  called  '  Madame  la  Comtesse.'  " 

All  this  was  said  with  such  admirable  coolness 
that  not  one  hearer  dared  to  deride  this  little  man. 
The  president  Boirouge  alone  replied  to  him  : 

"  In  your  place,  I  should  think  myself  happy  only 
if  I  had  a  daughter — " 

"  But,"  answered  the  baron,  "  I  shall  soon  go  to 
Paris—" 


In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1842,  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye,  always  conscious  that  she  was  held 
merely  as  a  makeshift,  had  returned  to  her  plan  of 
immolating  herself  for  Lousteau's  comfort, — she  had 
resumed  her  black  garments  ;  but  now  she  wore 
mourning,  for  her  pleasures  had  changed  to  remorse. 
She  experienced  too  often  a  feeling  of  shame  at  her- 
self not  to  be  conscious  at  times  of  the  weight  of  her 
chain,  and  her  mother  surprised  her  in  those  moments 
of  deep  reflection  in  which  the  vision  of  the  future 
plunges  the  unhappy  one  into  a  sort  of  torpor.  Ma- 
dame Piedefer,  counselled  by  her  confessor,  watched 
for  the  moment  of  weariness  which  this  priest  pre- 
dicted would  come,  and  her  voice  then  pleaded  for 
the  children.  She  contented  herself  by  urging  a 
separation  of  domicile,  without  exacting  a  separation 
of  hearts. 

In  real  life,  these  species  of  violent  situations  do 
not  terminate  as  in  books,  by  death  or  by  catas- 
trophes skilfully  brought  about ;  they  finish  much 
less  poetically  by  disgust,  by  the  withering  of  all  the 
flowers  of  the  soul,  by  the  commonness  of  daily 
habits,  but  very  often  also  by  another  passion  which 
(3*3) 


314  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

strips  a  woman  of  all  that  interest  with  which  women 
are  traditionally  surrounded.  Now,  when  the  good 
sense,  the  law  of  social  conventionalities,  the  family- 
interest,  all  the  elements  of  that  which  is  called 
public  morality  under  the  Restoration,  in  hatred  of 
the  phrase  Catholic  religion,  was  supported  by  the 
consciousness  of  wounds  a  little  too  deep  ;  when  the 
weariness  of  devotion  had  arrived  almost  at  failing, 
and  when,  in  this  situation,  a  too  violent  blow,  one 
of  those  basenesses  which  men  never  allow  to  be  per- 
ceived but  by  women  of  whom  they  think  them- 
selves always  masters,  comes  to  put  the  finishing 
touch  to  disgust,  to  disenchantment,  the  hour  has 
finally  arrived  for  that  friend  who  is  seeking  to  effect 
this  cure.  Madame  Piedefer  had  then  but  little  to 
do  to  remove  the  film  from  her  daughter's  eyes. 
She  sent  for  the  avocat-general .  Monsieur  de  Clagny 
completed  the  work  by  affirming  to  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  that,  if  she  abandoned  her  life  with 
Etienne,  her  husband  would  leave  her  her  children, 
would  permit  her  to  live  in  Paris  and  would  give  her 
the  disposition  of  her  property. 

"  What  an  existence  !  "  said  he.  "  By  using  pre- 
cautions, with  the  aid  of  pious  and  charitable  women, 
you  might  hd'.'Q  a  salon  and  regain  a  position.  Paris 
is  not  Sancerre  !  " 

Dinah  turned  over  to  Monsieur  de  Clagny  the 
task  of  negotiating  a  reconciliation  with  the  little 
old  man.  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  had  sold  his 
wines  well,  he  had  sold  his  wool,  he  had  cleared  off 
that  part  of  his  estate  which  he  had  reserved,    and 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  315 

he  had  come  to  Paris,  without  saying  anything  about 
it  to  his  wife,  to  invest  two  hundred  thousand  francs 
there  by  purchasing,  in  the  Rue  de  1' Arcade,  a 
charming  hotel  that  had  been  on  the  market  through 
the  liquidation  of  a  great  aristocratic  fortune  badly 
compromised.  A  member  of  the  council-general  of 
his  department  since  1826,  and  paying  ten  thousand 
francs  of  taxes,  he  found  himself  doubly  within  the 
conditions  required  by  the  new  law  of  the  peerage. 
Some  time  before  the  general  election  of  1842  he  de- 
clared his  candidacy  in  case  he  was  not  made  peer 
of  France.  He  demanded  also  the  title  of  count  and 
to  be  promoted  to  commander  of  the  Legion  of  Honor. 
In  the  elections,  everything  that  could  consolidate 
the  dynastic  nominations  was  allowable  in  the  eyes 
of  the  ministers ;  now,  in  case  Monsieur  de  la 
Baudraye  should  be  acquired  by  the  government, 
Sancerre  would  become  more  than  ever  the  rotten 
borough  of  "the  doctrine."  Monsieur  de  Clagny, 
whose  talents  and  modesty  were  becoming  more  and 
more  appreciated,  supported  Monsieur  de  la  Bau- 
draye ;  he  demonstrated  that  in  the  elevation  to  the 
peerage  of  this  courageous  agriculturist,  guarantees 
would  be  given  to  the  material  interests.  Monsieur 
de  la  Baudraye,  once  made  count,  peer  of  France 
and  commander  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  had  the 
vanity  to  wish  to  be  represented  by  a  wife  and  by  a 
well-appointed  household, — he  wished,  as  he  said, 
to  enjoy  life.  He  therefore  requested  his  wife,  in  a 
letter  which  the  avocat-general  dictated,  to  inhabit 
his  hotel,  to  furnish  it,  to  display  in  it  all  that  taste 


316  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

of  which  so  many  proofs  charmed  him,  he  said,  in 
his  Chateau  d'Anzy.  The  new  count  observed  to 
his  wife  that  their  territorial  interests  forbade  his 
leaving  Sancerre,  whilst  the  education  of  their  sons 
required  her  to  remain  in  Paris.  The  complying 
husband  therefore  charged  Monsieur  de  Clagny  with 
the  task  of  remitting  to  Madame  la  Comtesse  sixty 
thousand  francs  for  the  interior  arrangement  of  the 
Hotel  de  la  Baudraye,  recommending  that  a  marble 
slab  be  inserted  over  the  porte  cochere  with  this  in- 
scription :  Hotel  de  la  Baudraye.  Also,  while  ren- 
dering to  his  wife  an  account  of  the  settling  of  the  Silas 
Piedefer  estate,  Monsieur  de  la  Baudraye  announced 
the  investment  at  four  and  a  half  per  cent,  of  the 
eight  hundred  thousand  francs  received  in  New  York, 
and  allotted  her  this  investment  for  her  expenses, 
including  that  of  the  education  of  the  children.  Ap- 
parently obliged  to  come  to  Paris  during  a  part  of 
the  session  of  the  Chamber  of  Peers,  he  asked  his 
wife  to  reserve  for  him  a  little  apartment  in  an 
entresol  over  the  servants'  rooms. 

"  Ah  !  now  !  but  he  is  becoming  young,  he  is  be- 
coming a  gentleman,  he  is  becoming  magnificent ; 
what  is  he  yet  going  to  become  ?  it  is  enough  to 
make  you  tremble,"  said  Madame  de  la  Baudraye. 

"He  is  satisfying  all  the  desires  which  you 
formed  at  twenty,"  replied  the  magistrate. 

The  comparison  between  her  future  destiny  and 
her  actual  destiny  was  not  to  be  supported  by 
Dinah.  The  very  day  before,  Anna  de  Fontaine 
had  turned  her  head  away  so  as  not  to  see  her  dear 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  317 

friend  of  the  Chamarolles  Institute.  Dinah  said  to 
herself : 

"  I  am  a  countess,  I  shall  have  on  my  carriage  the 
blue  mantling  of  the  peerage,  and  in  my  salon  the 
greatest  literary  celebrities — I  will  look  at  her,  1 
will  !  "— 

This  little  enjoyment  weighed  with  all  its  effect- 
iveness at  the  moment  of  conversion,  as  the  scorn 
of  the  world  had  formerly  weighed  on  her  happiness. 

One  fine  day  in  May,  1842,  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye  paid  all  the  debts  of  her  household,  and  left  a 
thousand  ecus  on  the  bundle  of  receipts  of  all  these 
accounts.  After  having  sent  her  mother  and  her 
children  to  the  Hotel  de  la  Baudraye,  she  waited  for 
Lousteau  all  dressed,  as  if  to  go  out.  When  the 
ex-king  of  her  heart  came  in  for  dinner,  she  said  to 
him: 

"  I  have  nothing  to  eat  in  the  house,  my  friend. 
Madame  de  la  Baudraye  invites  you  to  dinner  at  the 
Rocher  de  Cancale.     Come  !  " 

She  led  Lousteau  away,  stupefied  at  the  little  in- 
dependent air  assumed  by  this  woman  who  only 
that  morning  had  been  subservient  to  his  smallest 
caprices,  for  she  also  had  been  playing  a  part  for 
the  last  two  months  ! 

"  Madame  de  la  Baudraye  is  ficelee — dressed  out — 
as  if  for  a  first,"  said  he,  making  use  of  the  ab- 
breviation by  which  in  the  slang  of  the  journalists 
they  designated  a  first  representation. 

"Do  not  forget  the  respect  which  you  owe  to 
Madame   de   la   Baudraye,"   said    Dinah    gravely. 


318  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

'■'  I  no  longer  wish  to  know  the  meaning  of  that 
word  fieelee — " 

"Is  Didine  in  rebellion?"  he  asked,  taking  her 
by  the  waist. 

"  There  is  no  longer  any  Didine,  you  have  killed 
her,  my  friend,"  she  replied,  disengaging  herself. 
"  And  I  give  you  the  first  representation  of  Madame 
la  Comtesse  de  la  Baudraye — " 

"  It  is  then  true,  our  insect  is  a  peer  of  France  ?  " 

"The  nomination  will  be  in  the  Motiiteur  this 
evening,  Monsieur  de  Clagny  informed  me,  he  him- 
self passing  up  to  the  court  of  cassation." 

"In  fact,"  said  the  journalist,  "the  social  ento- 
mology should  be  represented  in  the  Chamber — " 

"My  friend,  we'  are  separating  for  ever,"  said 
Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  suppressing  the  tremor  in 
her  voice.  "I  have  dismissed  the  two  servants. 
When  you  return,  you  will  find  your  household  all 
regulated,  and  without  any  debts.  I  shall  have  for 
you  always,  but  secretly,  the  heart  of  a  mother. 
Let  us  leave  each  other  quietly,  without  noise,  like 
people  who  are  conime  il  faut.  Have  you  any  re- 
proach to  make  to  me  concerning  my  conduct  during 
these  six  years  ?  " 

"  None,  unless  it  is  to  have  wrecked  my  life  and 
destroyed  my  future,"  he  said  in  a  bitter  tone. 
"  You  have  read  a  great  deal  in  the  book  by  Benja- 
min Constant,  and  you  have  even  studied  the  last 
article  that  has  been  written,  but  you  have  only 
read  it  with  a  woman's  eyes.  Although  you  have 
one  of  those  fine  intelligences  which  would   make 


THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  319 

the  fortune  of  a  poet,  you  have  never  ventured  to 
place  yourself  at  a  man's  point  of  view.  This 
book,  my  dear,  has  two  sexes.  Do  you  under- 
stand?— We  have  established  the  fact  that  there  are 
male  and  female  books,  blond  and  black — In  Adolphe, 
the  women  see  only  Ellenore,  the  young  men  see 
Adolphe,  the  men  of  the  world  see  Ellenore  and 
Adolphe,  the  men  of  politics  see  the  social  life  !  You 
have  dispensed  with  the  power  of  entering  into 
Adolphe's  soul,  like  your  critic,  moreover,  who  has 
seen  only  Ellenore.  That  which  kills  that  poor 
fellow,  my  dear,  is  to  have  sacrificed  his  future  to  a 
woman  ;  to  no  longer  be  able  to  be  any  of  those 
things  which  he  should  have  become,  neither  am- 
bassador, nor  minister,  nor  chamberlain,  nor  poet, 
nor  rich.  He  has  given  six  years  of  his  energy,  at 
that  period  of  life  during  which  a  man  can  accept 
the  roughness  of  any  apprenticeship  whatever,  to  a 
petticoat  which  he  precedes  in  the  career  of  ingrati- 
tude, for  a  woman  who  has  been  able  to  leave  her 
first  lover  will  sooner  or  later  leave  the  second.  In 
short,  Adolphe  is  an  insipid,  blond  German,  who  does 
not  feel  himself  strong  enough  to  deceive  Ellenore. 
He  is  of  those  Adolphes  who  spare  their  Ellenore 
dishonorable  quarrels,  complaints,  and  who  say  to 
themselves  :  •  I  will  not  speak  of  that  which  I  have 
lost !  I  will  not  always  be  displaying  the  royal 
importance  of  my  severed  fist,  as  did  Ramorny  in 
The  Fair  Maid  of  Perth ; '  but  those,  my  dear,  they 
are  forsaken — Adolphe  is  the  descendant  of  a  good 
family,  an  aristocratic  heart  that  desires  to  re-enter 


320  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

the  path  of  honors,  and  recover  his  social  dowry,  his 
consideration  that  has  been  compromised.  You  are 
representing  at  this  moment  the  two  personages  at 
once.  You  are  conscious  of  the  pain  caused  by  a 
lost  position,  and  you  think  you  have  the  right  to 
abandon  a  poor  lover  who  has  had  the  misfortune  to 
believe  you  sufficiently  superior  to  admit  that,  if 
with  a  man  the  heart  should  be  constant,  the  fair 
sex  may  give  themselves  up  to  caprices — " 

"  And  do  you  believe  that  I  would  not  make  it  my 
affair  to  restore  to  you  that  which  I  have  made  you 
lose  ?  Be  easy,"  replied  Madame  de  la  Baudraye, 
overwhelmed  at  this  attack,  "  your  Ellenore  does  not 
die,  and,  if  God  lends  her  life,  if  you  change  your 
conduct,  if  you  ren&unce  lorettes  and  actresses,  we 
will  find  you  something  better  than  Felicie  Cardot." 

Each  of  the  two  lovers  became  gloomy, — Lousteau 
feigned  sadness,  he  wished  to  appear  dry  and  cold  ; 
whilst  Dinah,  really  unhappy,  listened  to  the  re- 
proaches of  her  heart. 

"Why,"  said  Lousteau,  "should  we  not  end  as 
we  should  have  commenced,  conceal  our  love  from 
all  eyes,  and  see  each  other  secretly  ?  " 

"  Never !  "  said  the  new  countess,  assuming  a 
glacial  air.  "  Can  you  not  understand  that  we  are, 
after  all,  finite  beings  ?  Our  sentiments  appear  to 
us  to  be  infinite  because  of  the  presentiment  which 
we  have  of  Heaven  ;  but  they  have,  here  below  for 
limits,  the  forces  of  our  organization.  There  are 
soft  and  cowardly  natures  that  can  receive  an  infi- 
nite number  of  wounds  and  persist ;  but  there  are 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  321 

those  more  finely  tempered  which  end  by  breaking 
under  the  blows.     You  have  to  me — " 

"  Oh  !  enough,"  he  said,  "let  us  make  no  more 
copy! — Your  article  seems  to  me  unnecessary,  for 
you  can  justify  yourself  by  a  single  word  :  /  no 
longer  lave! — " 

"  Ah  !  it  is  I  who  no  longer  love  ? — "  she  cried 
in  astonishment. 

"Certainly.  You  have  reasoned  it  out,  that  I 
cause  you  more  vexations,  more  weariness  than 
pleasure,  and  you  leave  your  associate — " 

"  I  leave  him  ! — "  she  cried,  lifting  both  her 
hands. 

"  Did  you  not  just  say  :    Never? — -" 

"Well,  yes,  then,  forever! — "  she  replied  force- 
fully. 

This  forever,  inspired  by  the  fear  of  falling  again 
under  Lousteau's  authority,  was  interpreted  by 
him  as  the  end  of  his  power,  from  the  moment 
when  Dinah  became  insensible  to  his  scornful  sar- 
casms. The  journalist  could  not  restrain  a  tear, — 
he  was  losing  a  sincere  and  unlimited  affection.  He 
had  found  in  Dinah  the  most  gentle  La  Valliere,  the 
most  agreeable  Pompadour  that  an  egotist  who  was 
not  a  king  could  desire  ;  and,  like  the  child  who  per- 
ceives that  by  dint  of  teasing  his  cockchafer  he  has 
finally  killed  it,  Lousteau  wept.  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  fled  out  of  the  little  salon  in  which  she  had 
been  dining,  paid  for  the  dinner  and  took  refuge  in 
the  Rue  de  l'Arcade,  reproaching  herself  and  think- 
ing herself  cruel. 
21 


322  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

Dinah,  who  had  made  of  her  hotel  a  model  of  com- 
fortable furnishing,  metamorphosed  herself  ;  but  this 
double  metamorphosis  cost  thirty  thousand  francs 
beyond  the  sum  allotted  by  the  new  peer  of  France. 
The  fatal  event  which  caused  to  the  house  of 
Orleans  the  loss  of  its  heir  presumptive,  having 
made  necessary  the  meeting  of  the  Chambers  in 
August,  1842,  the  little  La  Baudraye  came  to  pre- 
sent his  titles  to  the  noble  Chamber  sooner  than  he 
had  anticipated,  and  then  saw  the  work  that  his  wife 
had  done  ;  he  was  so  charmed  with  it  that  he  gave 
the  thirty  thousand  francs  without  making  the  least 
observation,  as  formerly  he  had  given  eight  thousand 
for  the  furnishing  of  La  Baudraye.  On  his  return 
from  the  Luxembourg,  where,  according  to  custom, 
he  had  been  presented  by  two  peers,  the  Baron  de 
Nucingen  and  the  Marquis  de  Montriveau,  the  new 
count  encountered  the  old  Due  de  Chaulieu,  one  of 
his  former  creditors,  on  foot,  carrying  an  umbrella, 
whilst  he  was  comfortably  installed  in  a  small,  low 
carriage,  on  the  panels  of  which  glittered  his  arms 
with  the  motto  :  Deo  sic  patet  fides  et  hominibus. 
This  comparison  dropped  into  his  heart  a  dose  of 
that  balm  with  which  the  bourgeoisie  have  been  in- 
toxicating themselves  since  1830.  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  was  terrified  in  seeing  her  husband  again 
better  than  he  had  been  on  the  day  of  their  marriage. 
Flushed  with  superlative  joy,  the  abortion  tri- 
umphed at  sixty-four  years  of  age  with  the  life 
which  had  been  denied  him,  with  the  family  which 
the  handsome  Milaud  de  Nevers  had  forbidden  him 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  323 

to  have,  with  his  wife  who  received  at  dinner  Mon- 
sieur and  Madame  de  Clagny,  the  Cure  of  the  As- 
sumption and  his  two  introducers  in  the  Chamber. 
He  caressed  his  children  with  a  charming  foolish- 
ness. The  beauty  of  the  table  service  received  his 
approbation. 

"Those  are  from  the  wool  of  Berri,"  he  said, 
showing  to  Monsieur  de  Nucingen  the  covers  of  the 
dishes  surmounted  by  his  new  coronet,  "they  are 
of  silver." 

Although  a  prey  to  a  profound  melancholy,  sup- 
pressed with  the  strength  of  a  truly  superior  woman, 
Dinah  was  charming,  intellectual,  and  above  all,  ap- 
peared in  her  court  mourning  to  have  regained  her 
youth. 

"  It  would  be  said,"  exclaimed  the  little  La  Bau- 
draye,  indicating  his  wife  to  Monsieur  de  Nucingen, 
"  that  the  countess  was  less  than  thirty  !  " 

"Ah!  Matam  ees  dirty  years  olt?"  replied  the 
baron,  who  made  use  of  the  consecrated  jests,  see- 
ing in  them  a  sort  of  small  change  for  conversation. 

"  In  every  sense  of  the  word,"  replied  the  coun- 
tess, "for  I  am  thirty-five,  and  I  hope  indeed  I  have 
a  little  heartfelt  passion — " 

"Yes,  my  wife  has  ruined  me  in  bric-a-brac,  in 
Chinoiseries — " 

"Madame  has  developed  this  taste  early,"  said 
the  Marquis  de  Montriveau,  smiling. 

"Yes,"  replied  the  little  La  Baudraye,  looking 
coldly  at  the  marquis,  whom  he  had  known  at 
Bourges,  "  you  know  that  she  picked  up  in  '25,  '26 


324  THE   MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

and  '27  for  more  than  a  million  those  curiosities 
which  make  of  Anzy  a  museum — " 

"What  self-assurance!"  thought  Monsieur  de 
Clagny  in  seeing  this  little  miser  from  the  provinces 
sustain  himself  at  the  height  of  his  new  position. 

The  misers  have  economies  of  every  kind  to  man- 
ifest. The  day  after  the  vote  of  the  law  of  the 
regency  by  the  Chamber,  the  little  peer  of  France 
went  back  to  look  after  his  vintages  at  Sancerre  and 
resumed  his  former  habits. 

During  the  winter  of  1842,  the  Comtesse  de  la 
Baudraye,  aided  by  the  avocat-general  of  the  court 
of  cassation,  endeavored  to  form  a  society  around 
her.  Naturally,  she  had  a  day  on  which  to  receive  ; 
she  made  a  distinction  among  the  celebrities,  she 
wished  to  see  only  those  who  were  serious  and  of  a 
ripe  age.  She  endeavored  to  find  distraction  in 
going  to  the  Italiens  and  to  the  Opera.  Twice  a 
week  she  took  there  her  mother  and  Madame  de 
Clagny,  whom  her  husband  forced  to  see  Madame 
de  la  Baudraye.  But,  notwithstanding  her  intel- 
ligence, her  agreeable  manners,  notwithstanding  her 
carriage  as  a  woman  of  the  world,  she  was  happy 
only  in  her  children,  on  whom  she  lavished  all  her 
thwarted  affections.  The  admirable  Monsieur  de 
Clagny  recruited  women  for  the  countess's  society, 
and  he  succeeded  !  But  he  succeeded  much  better 
with  the  devout  ladies  than  with  the  women  of  the 
world. 

"  They  weary  her !  "  he  said  to  himself  in  terror, 
as  he   contemplated   his   idol    matured   by  sorrow, 


THE   MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  325 

paled  with  remorse,  and  at  that  time  in  all  the  bril- 
liancy of  a  beauty  regained  by  her  luxurious  life  and 
by  her  maternity. 

The  devoted  magistrate,  supported  in  his  work  by 
the  mother  and  by  the  cure  of  the  parish,  was  ad- 
mirable in  expedients.  He  served  up  every  Wed- 
nesday some  celebrity  from  Germany,  England,  Italy 
or  Prussia,  to  his  dear  countess  ;  he  vaunted  her  as 
an  incomparable  woman  to  men  to  whom  she  did  not 
say  two  words,  but  to  whom  she  listened  with  such 
profound  attention,  that  they  went  away  quite 
convinced  of  her  superiority.  Dinah  vanquished  at 
Paris  by  her  silence,  as  she  had  at  Sancerre  by  her 
loquacity.  From  time  to  time  some  epigram  upon 
men  and  things,  or  some  observation  upon  the  ab- 
surdities, revealed  a  woman  accustomed  to  the  ar- 
rangement of  ideas,  and  who,  four  years  previously, 
had  rejuvenated  Lousteau's  feuilleton.  This  period 
was  for  the  passion  of  the  poor  magistrate  like  that 
season  called  Saint  Martin's  summer  in  the  years 
that  have  no  sun.  He  made  himself  more  of  an  old 
man  than  he  really  was  in  order  to  have  the  right 
to  be  Dinah's  friend  without  compromising  her ; 
but,  as  if  he  had  been  youthful,  handsome  and  com- 
promising, he  kept  himself  at  a  distance  like  a  man 
who  should  conceal  his  happiness.  He  endeavored 
to  envelop  in  the  most  profound  secrecy  his  little 
attentions,  his  slight  gifts  which  Dinah  displayed 
openly.  He  endeavored  to  attach  dangerous  signifi- 
cations to  his  slightest  obediences. 

"  He  acts  a  passion,"  said  the  countess,  laughing. 


326  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

She  derided  Monsieur  de  Clagny  to  his  face,  and 
the  magistrate  said  to  himself  : 

"  She  concerns  herself  about  me!" 

"  I  have  made  so  great  an  impression  on  that  poor 
man,"  she  said  laughingly  to  her  mother,  "  that,  if 
I  should  say  yes  to  him,  I  believe  that  he  would  say 
no." 

One  evening,  Monsieur  de  Clagny  brought  home, 
in  his  wife's  company,  his  dear  countess  absorbed 
in  deep  thought.  All  three  had  been  to  see  the  first 
representation  of  La  Main  Droite  et  la  Main  Gauche, 
the  first  drama  by  Leon  Gozlan. 

"  Of  what  are  you  thinking  ?  "  asked  the  magis- 
trate, frightened  by  his  idol's  melancholy. 

The  persistency  of  the  hidden  but  profound  sad- 
ness which  affected  the  countess  was  a  dangerous 
evil  which  the  avocat-general  did  not  know  how  to 
combat,  for  sincere  love  is  often  awkward,  especially 
when  it  is  not  shared.  True  love  borrows  its  form 
from  the  character.  Now,  the  worthy  magistrate 
loved  in  the  manner  of  Alceste,  while  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye  wished  to  be  loved  in  the  manner  of 
Philinte.*  The  weaknesses  and  failings  of  love 
agree  but  ill  with  the  loyalty  of  the  Misanthrope. 
Thus  Dinah  kept  herself  carefully  from  opening  her 
heart  to  her  patito.  How  could  she  dare  to  admit 
that  she  regretted  sometimes  her  former  mire.  She 
was  conscious  of  an  enormous  void  in  the  worldly 
life,  she  did  not  know  to  whom  to  appeal  with  her 

*  Alceste,  Philinte,  contrasting  characters  in  Moliere's 
Misanthrope. 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  327 

successes,  her  triumphs,  her  toilets.  Sometimes  the 
memory  of  her  miseries  returned  mingled  with  the 
memory  of  devouring  voluptuousness.  She  was 
disposed  sometimes  to  be  vexed  at  Lousteau  that  he 
paid  no  attention  to  her,  she  would  have  liked  to 
receive  letters  from  him,  either  tender  or  furious. 
As  Dinah  made  no  reply,  the  magistrate  repeated 
his  question,  taking  the  hand  of  the  countess  and 
pressing  it  between  his  own  with  a  devout  air. 

"  Will  you  have  the  right  hand  or  the  left  ?  "  she 
said  with  a  smile. 

"The  left  hand,"  he  said,  '-for  I  presume  that 
you  are  speaking  of  falsehood  and  of  truth." 

"Well,  I  have  seen  him,"  she  replied,  speaking 
so  as  to  be  heard  only  by  the  magistrate.  When  I 
saw  him  sad,  profoundly  discouraged,  I  said  to 
myself :  '  Has  he  any  cigars  ?  has  he  any 
money  ? '  " 

"  Oh  !  if  you  wish  to  know  the  truth,  I  will  tell 
you,"  exclaimed  Monsieur  de  Clagny,  "that  he  is 
living  in  marital  relations  with  Fanny  Beaupre.  You 
have  wrested  this  confidence  from  me ;  I  should 
never  have  made  it  to  you,  you  would  perhaps 
have  given  me  credit  for  somewhat  generous  senti- 
ments." 

Madame  de  la  Baudraye  grasped  the  hand  of  the 
avocat-general. 

"  You  have  for  a  husband,"  she  said  to  her  chap- 
eron, "  one  of  the  rarest  of  men.     Ah  !  why — " 

She  buried  herself  in  her  corner  and  looked  out 
through  the   windows  of  the  coupe  ;   but  she  sup- 


328  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

pressed  the  rest  of  her  phrase,  which  the  avocat- 
general  divined  :  "  Why  has  not  Lousteau  a  little  of 
the  nobility  of  heart  of  your  husband  ?  " 

Nevertheless,  this  piece  of  news  dissipated  Ma- 
dame de  la  Baudraye's  melancholy,  she  threw  her- 
self into  the  life  of  the  women  of  the  world ;  she 
wished  to  have  success  and  she  obtained  it ;  but  she 
made  but  little  progress  in  the  world  of  women, 
she  experienced  difficulties  in  introducing  herself 
there.  In  the  month  of  March,  the  priests,  friends 
of  Madame  Piedefer  and  the  avocat-general,  struck  a 
great  blow  by  causing  Madame  la  Comtesse  de  la 
Baudraye  to  be  named  as  collector  for  the  work  of 
charity  founded  by  Madame  de  Carcado.  Finally 
she  was  appointed*  at  court  to  collect  subscrip- 
tions for  the  victims  of  the  earthquake  in  Gua- 
deloupe. The  Marquise  d'Espard,  to  whom  Mon- 
sieur de  Canalis  was  reading  the  names  of  these 
ladies  at  the  Opera,  said,  on  hearing  that  of  the 
countess  : 

"  I  have  been  in  this  world  a  long  time  and  I  do 
not  remember  anything  finer  than  the  measures  that 
are  being  taken  to  preserve  the  honor  of  Madame  de 
la  Baudraye." 

During  the  spring  days,  which  a  caprice  of  our 
climate  caused  to  shine  upon  Paris  in  the  first  week 
of  the  month  of  March,  1843,  an^  during  which  the 
Champs-Elysees  might  be  seen  leafy  and  green  as 
far  as  Longchamps,  the  lover  of  Fanny  Beaupre  had, 
in  his  promenades,  already  seen  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye several  times  without  being  seen  by  her.     He 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  329 

had  then  more  than  once  been  bitten  to  the  heart  by 
one  of  those  impulses  of  envy  and  jealousy  familiar 
enough  to  those  born  and  reared  in  the  provinces, 
when  he  saw  again  his  former  mistress  comfortably 
seated  in  the  back  of  a  handsome  carriage,  beauti- 
fully dressed,  with  a  thoughtful  air,  and  with  her 
two  children,  one  at  each  door.  He  reviled  himself 
all  the  more  inwardly  that  he  was  at  this  moment  in 
the  grip  of  one  of  the  sharpest  of  all  distresses,  a 
hidden  one.  He  was,  like  all  those  whose  natures 
are  essentially  vain  and  light,  sensitive  to  that  sin- 
gular point  of  honor  which  consists  in  not  being 
brought  down  in  the  eyes  of  his  public,  which  causes 
legal  crimes  to  be  committed  by  the  men  of  the 
Bourse  that  they  may  not  be  driven  from  the  temple 
of  stock-jobbing,  which  gives  to  certain  criminals  the 
courage  to  commit  acts  of  virtue.  Lousteau,  dined 
and  breakfasted,  smoked,  as  if  he  were  rich.  He 
would  not,  for  an  inheritance,  have  failed  to  pur- 
chase the  very  dearest  cigars,  for  himself  as  for  the 
sorry  dramatists  or  the  prose  writer  with  whom  he 
was  entering  upon  a  negotiation.  He  took  his  prom- 
enades in  varnished  boots  ;  but  he  lived  in  fear  of 
seizures  of  goods  which,  in  the  language  of  the 
sheriff's  officers,  had  received  the  last  sacraments. 
Fanny  Beaupre  possessed  nothing  that  could  be 
pawned,  and  his  receipts  were  completely  stopped  ! 
After  having  exhausted  the  utmost  possible  limit  of 
advances  from  the  reviews,  from  the  journals  and 
from  the  book  publishers,  Etienne  no  longer  knew 
with  what  ink  to  make  gold.     The  gaming  tables,  so 


330  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

awkwardly  suppressed,  could  no  longer  liquidate,  as 
formerly,  the  bills  of  exchange  drawn  upon  their 
green  cloth  by  poverty  in  despair.  Finally,  the 
journalist  had  arrived  at  such  a  degree  of  indi- 
gence that  he  had  just  borrowed  from  the  poorest 
of  his  friends,  from  Bixiou  whom  he  had  never 
asked  for  anything,  a  hundred  francs.  That  which 
pained  Lousteau  the  most,  it  was  not  that  he  owed 
five  thousand  francs,  but  to  see  him  stripped  of  all 
his  elegance,  of  his  furniture,  acquired  by  so  many 
privations,  enriched  by  Madame  de  la  Baudraye. 
Now,  on  the  3d  of  April,  a  yellow  bill,  torn  down 
by  the  porter  after  having  sparkled  upon  the  wall, 
had  announced  the  sale  of  some  fine  furniture  for 
the  following  Saturday,  the  day  of  sales  by  authority 
of  the  law. 

Lousteau  was  taking  a  promenade,  smoking  cigars 
and  searching  for  ideas  :  for,  in  Paris,  ideas  are  in 
the  air,  they  smile  at  you  from  the  corner  of  a 
street,  they  spring  up  from  under  the  wheel  of  a 
cabriolet  with  a  jet  of  mud  !  The  idler  had  already 
been  searching  for  ideas  for  articles  and  for  subjects 
for  novels  during  a  whole  month  ;  but  he  had  found 
nothing  but  friends  who  dragged  him  off  to  dinner, 
to  the  theatre,  and  who  intoxicated  his  grief  away 
by  assuring  him  that  the  wine  of  Champagne  would 
inspire  him. 

"  Take  care,"  said  to  him  one  evening  the  atro- 
cious Bixiou,  who  was  capable  at  the  same  time  of 
giving  a  hundred  francs  to  a  comrade  and  of  pierc- 
ing him  to  the  heart  with  a  word.     "  Through  going 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  33 1 

to  bed  always  fuddled,  you  will  wake  up  some 
morning  mad." 

On  the  evening  before,  the  Friday,  the  unfor- 
tunate man,  notwithstanding  his  habitual  poverty, 
was  affected  like  a  man  condemned  to  death.  For- 
merly, he  would  have  said  :  "  Bah  !  my  furniture 
is  old,  I  will  renew  it."  But  he  felt  himself  in- 
capable of  recommencing  the  literary  tours  deforce. 
The  book  trade,  ruined  by  pirating,  paid  but  little. 
The  journals  haggled  with  the  broken-down  talents, 
as  did  the  directors  of  theatres  with  the  tenors  who 
dropped  a  note.  And  he  walked  doggedly  on,  his 
eyes  on  the  crowd  without  seeing  anything,  the 
cigar  in  his  mouth,  and  his  hands  in  his  armholes, 
his  countenance  inwardly  contracted  but  outwardly 
wearing  a  false  smile  on  the  lips.  Then  he  saw 
Madame  de  la  Baudraye  pass  in  her  carriage,  she 
came  out  on  the  boulevard  by  the  Rue  de  la  Chaus- 
see-d'Antin  on  her  way  to  the  Bois. 

"  There  is  no  longer  anything  but  that,"  he  said 
to  himself. 

He  returned  home  to  bedeck  himself.  In  the 
evening,  at  seven  o'clock,  he  went  in  a  hackney 
coach  to  Madame  de  la  Baudraye's  door,  and  re- 
quested the  concierge  to  deliver  to  the  countess  a 
message  to  this  effect : 

Will  Madame  la  Comtesse  do  Monsieur  Loiisteau  the  kindness  to 
receive  him  for  a  moment,  and  at  this  moment  ? 

This  note  was  sealed  with  a  seal  which  had  for- 
merly been  used  by  both  lovers.     Madame  de  la  Bau- 


332  THE  MUSE  OF  THE   DEPARTMENT 

draye  had  caused  to  be  engraved  on  a  true  Oriental 
cornelian  :  Because !  A  great  word,  woman's  word, 
the  word  which  can  explain  everything,  even  the 
creation.  The  countess  had  just  finished  her  toilet 
to  go  to  the  Opera,  Friday  being  her  box-night. 
She  turned  pale  when  she  saw  the  seal. 

"Let  him  wait!"  she  said,  putting  the  note  in 
her  corsage. 

She  had  presence  of  mind  enough  to  conceal  her 
agitation,  and  asked  her  mother  to  put  the  children 
to  bed.  Then  she  sent  word  for  Lousteau  to  be  ad- 
mitted, and  she  received  him  in  a  boudoir  adjoining 
her  great  salon,  the  doors  open.  She  was  intending 
to  go  to  a  ball  after  the  theatre,  she  had  put  on  an 
exquisite  dress  in  broche  silk,  with  stripes  alter- 
nately lustreless  and  filled  with  flowers,  of  a  straw 
color.  Her  gloves,  embroidered  and  tasselled,  re- 
vealed her  beautiful  white  arms.  She  was  sparkling 
with  laces,  and  wore  all  the  pretty  futilities  required 
by  the  fashion  of  the  day.  Her  coiffure,  a  la  Sevi- 
gne,  gave  her  a  fine,  intelligent  air.  A  collar  of  pearls 
upon  her  neck  resembled  flaws  in  the  snow. 

"  What  is  the  matter  with  you,  monsieur  ?  "  said 
the  countess,  putting  out  her  foot  from  under  her 
dress  to  crush  a  velvet  cushion.  "  I  believed,  I 
hoped  to  be  perfectly  forgotten — " 

"  If  I  should  say  to  you  never,  you  would  not  wish 
to  believe  me,"  said  Lousteau,  who  remained  stand- 
ing and  began  to  walk  about,  all  the  while  chewing 
flowers  which  he  took  at  each  turn  from  the  jardi- 
nieres whose  heavy  clusters  filled  the  boudoir  with 
fragrance. 


AT  THE  HOTEL   DE  LA   BAUD  RAVE 


A  moment  of  silence  prevailed,  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye,  in  examining  Lousteau,  found  him  ar- 
rayed as  would  be  the  most  scrupulous  dandy. 

"There  is  no  one  but  you  in  the  world  who  can 
help  me  and  offer  me  a  perch,  for  L  am  drowning, 
and  I  have  already  swallowed  more  than  one  mouth- 
ful!" 


- 


,-y       VlDAt.^ 


THE   MUSE   OF  THE   DEPARTMENT  333 

A  moment  of  silence  prevailed,  Madame  de  la 
Baudraye,  in  examining  Lousteau,  found  him  arrayed 
as  would  be  the  most  scrupulous  dandy. 

"  There  is  no  one  but  you  in  the  world  who  can 
help  me  and  offer  me  a  perch,  for  I  am  drowning, 
and  I  have  already  swallowed  more  than  one  mouth- 
ful !  " — he  said,  stopping  before  Dinah  and  appear- 
ing to  yield  to  a  supreme  effort.  "  If  you  see  me 
here,  it  is  because  my  affairs  are  going  devilishly 
bad." 

"  Enough  !  "  she  said,  "  I  understand  you." 

There  was  another  pause,  during  which  Lousteau 
turned  round,  took  out  his  handkerchief  and  ap- 
peared to  wipe  away  a  tear. 

"  What  do  you  require,  Etienne  ?  "  she  resumed 
in  a  maternal  voice.  "We  are  at  this  moment  old 
comrades  ;  speak  to  me  as  you  would  speak  to — to 
Bixiou — " 

"  To  prevent  my  furniture  from  jumping  over  to- 
morrow to  the  auctioneers'  rooms,  eighteen  hundred 
francs  !  To  pay  back  my  friends,  as  much  ;  three 
quarters  due  the  landlord,  which  you  know — My 
Aunt  requires  five  hundred  francs — " 

"  And  you,  to  live  on  ?  " 

"  Ah  !  I  have  my  pen  ! — " 

"  It  has  to  move  under  a  weight  of  which  we  are 
not  conscious  when  we  read  you — "  she  said,  smil- 
ing subtly.  "  I  have  not  the  amount  which  you  ask 
of  me — Come  to-morrow,  at  eight  o'clock,  the  bailiff 
will  certainly  wait  until  nine,  especially  if  you  bring 
him  to  pay  him." 


334  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

She  felt  the  necessity  of  sending  Lousteau  away, 
and  he  feigned  to  not  have  the  strength  to  look  at 
her ;  but  she  was  in  a  mood  of  compassion  that 
might  unloosen  all  the  Gordian  knots  which  are  tied 
by  society. 

"  Thanks  !  "  said  she,  rising  and  offering  her  hand 
to  Lousteau,  "  your  confidence  has  done  me  good  ! — 
Oh  !  it  is  a  long  time  since  I  have  felt  so  much  joy 
in  my  heart — " 

Lousteau  took  her  hand,  carried  it  to  his  heart 
and  pressed  it  tenderly. 

"  A  drop  of  water  in  the  desert,  and — by  the 
hand  of  an  angel  ! — God  always  does  things  well !  " 

This  was  said  half  jestingly  and  half  tenderly  ; 
but,  you  may  rest  well  assured,  it  was  as  fine,  as  a 
piece  of  theatricals,  as  that  of  Talma  in  his  famous 
role  of  Leicester,  where  everything  is  represented 
by  shadings  of  this  kind.  Dinah  felt  the  heart  beat 
through  the  thickness  of  the  cloth, — it  beat  with 
pleasure,  for  the  journalist  was  escaping  from  the 
judicial  hawk,  but  it  beat  also  with  a  desire  very 
natural  at  the  aspect  of  Dinah  rejuvenated  and  re- 
newed by  opulence.  Madame  de  la  Baudraye,  ex- 
amining Etienne  covertly,  saw  his  physiognomy  in 
harmony  with  all  the  flowers  of  love  which,  for  her, 
were  springing  into  life  again  in  that  palpitating 
heart ;  she  endeavored  to  penetrate  with  her  eyes, 
once,  into  the  eyes  of  him  whom  she  had  so  much 
loved,  but  a  tumultuous  blood  rushed  through  her 
veins  and  confused  her  head.  These  two  beings 
then  exchanged  the  same  reddening  glance  that,  on 


THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  335 

the  Quai  of  Cosne,  had  given  to  Lousteau  the 
audacity  to  rumple  the  organdie  dress.  The  bohemian 
drew  Dinah  toward  him  by  the  waist,  she  allowed 
herself  to  yield,  and  the  two  cheeks  touched. 

"  Hide  yourself,  here  is  my  mother !  "  exclaimed 
Dinah,  in  a  fright. 

And  she  hastened  to  meet  Madame  Piedefer. 

"  Mamma,"  she  said — this  was  for  the  severe 
Madame  Piedefer  a  caress  which  never  missed  its 
effect, — "  would  you  do  me  a  great  service,  take  the 
carriage,  go  yourself  to  the  house  of  our  banker, 
Monsieur  Mongenod,  with  the  little  note  which  I  am 
going  to  give  you  to  get  six  thousand  francs.  Come, 
come,  it  is  a  case  of  doing  a  good  action,  come  into 
my  chamber." 

And  she  carried  off  her  mother,  who  seemed  to 
wish  to  see  the  person  with  whom  her  daughter  had 
been  talking  in  the  boudoir. 

Two  days  later,  Madame  Piedefer  was  in  intimate 
consultation  with  the  cure  of  the  parish.  After 
having  listened  to  the  lamentations  of  this  despairing 
old  mother,  the  cure  said  to  her  gravely  : 

"  All  moral  regeneration  that  is  not  supported  by 
a  profound  religious  sentiment,  and  pursued  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Church,  is  built  upon  foundations  of 
sand — All  the  observances,  so  minute  and  so  little 
understood,  that  Catholicism  commands,  are  so  many 
dikes  necessary  to  restrain  the  tempests  of  the  evil 
spirit.  Therefore  you  must  bring  madame  your 
daughter  to  fulfil  all  her  religious  duties,  and  we 
will  save  her — " 


336  THE  MUSE  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 

Ten  days  after  this  conference,  the  Hotel  de  la 
Baudraye  was  closed.  The  countess  and  her 
children,  her  mother,  in  short,  all  her  household, 
which  she  had  increased  by  a  preceptor,  had  de- 
parted for  the  Sancerrois,  where  Dinah  intended  to 
pass  the  summer.  She  was  charming  to  the  count, 
it  was  said.  Thus  the  Muse  of  Sancerre  returned 
quite  honestly  to  the  family  and  to  marriage  duties  ; 
but,  according  to  some  slanderers,  she  was  obliged 
to  return,  for  the  wishes  of  the  little  peer  of  France 
were  doubtless  about  to  be  accomplished,  he  ex- 
pected a  daughter ! — Finally,  Gatien  and  Monsieur 
Gravier  surrounded  the  beautiful  countess  with 
servile  cares  and  attentions.  The  president's  son, 
who,  during  the  long  absence  of  Madame  de  la  Bau- 
draye, had  been  taking  lessons  as  a  lion  in  Paris, 
had,  it  was  said  at  the  literary  society,  excellent 
chances  for  pleasing  this  superior  woman,  now  dis- 
illusioned. Others  bet  on  the  preceptor,  and  Ma- 
dame Piedefer  pleaded  the  cause  of  religion. 

In  1844,  about  the  middle  of  June,  the  Comte  de 
la  Baudraye  was  taking  his  promenade  upon  the 
Mael  of  Sancerre,  accompanied  by  his  two  pretty 
children  ;  he  met  Monsieur  Milaud,  the  procureur- 
general,  who  had  come  to  Sancerre  on  business,  and 
he  said  to  him  : 

"  Cousin,  see  my  children — " 

"Ah!  see  our  children,"  replied  the  malicious 
procureur-general. 

£  Paris,  June  1843— August  1844. 


LIST  OF   ETCHINGS 


VOLUME   XXVIII 

PAGE 

IN  THE  RUE  D'ARTOIS Fronts. 

VERNIER  TO  GAUDISSART 60 

WHEN  MME.  DE  LA  BAUDRAYE  ENTERTAINS    ....  69 

ON  THE  PERRON  OF  ANZY 136 

AT  THE  HOTEL  DE  LA  BAUDRAYE 332 


28  C.  H.,  I.  G.,  N.  &  R.  337 


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